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This feed was created by mixing existing feeds from various sources.RSSMixMicrosoft adds Reddit data to Bing search results, Power BI analytics toolhttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/IX6tJSNvRF4/microsoft-adds-reddit-data-bing-search-results-power-bi-analytics-tool-288306
https://searchengineland.com/microsoft-adds-reddit-data-bing-search-results-power-bi-analytics-tool-288306Reddit posts will appear in Bing's search results, and its data will be piped into Power BI for marketers to track brand-related comments.
The post Microsoft adds Reddit data to Bing search results, Power BI analytics tool appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/IX6tJSNvRF4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>A-Post to Marketing LandA-Post to MarTech TodayBingBing Social SearchChannel: SocialSearch EnginesSearch Engines: Social Search EnginesSocial Media MarketingWed, 13 Dec 2017 22:30:30 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288306Tim Peterson2017-12-13T22:30:30ZSearchCap: Top Google searches, more data in Search Console & Google Assistant expandshttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/d5VXP1CjJz8/searchcap-top-google-searches-data-search-console-google-assistant-expands-288336
https://searchengineland.com/searchcap-top-google-searches-data-search-console-google-assistant-expands-288336Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The post SearchCap: Top Google searches, more data in Search Console &#038; Google Assistant expands appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/d5VXP1CjJz8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: IndustrySearchCapWed, 13 Dec 2017 21:00:06 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288336Barry Schwartz2017-12-13T21:00:06ZMarketing Day: YouTube’s top November ads, GDPR compliance & net neutralityhttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/AMTGWDi2e1Y/marketing-day-youtubes-top-november-ads-gdpr-compliance-net-neutrality-230227
https://marketingland.com/marketing-day-youtubes-top-november-ads-gdpr-compliance-net-neutrality-230227Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=AMTGWDi2e1Y:ZSriajYMgHI:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=AMTGWDi2e1Y:ZSriajYMgHI:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/AMTGWDi2e1Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: CMO ZoneMarketing DayWed, 13 Dec 2017 21:00:03 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230227Amy Gesenhues2017-12-13T21:00:03ZA balanced approach to data-driven SEOhttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/CtDBzKoz-kA/balanced-approach-data-driven-seo-230088
https://marketingland.com/balanced-approach-data-driven-seo-230088SEOs have access to massive amounts of data, and columnist Ryan Shelley asserts that we must learn how to overcome information overload and focus on what drives results.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=CtDBzKoz-kA:1IFuSA-L8ms:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=CtDBzKoz-kA:1IFuSA-L8ms:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/CtDBzKoz-kA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>A-From SELChannel: SEOSearch Marketing ColumnWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:55:35 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230088Ryan Shelley2017-12-13T19:55:35Z2017: The year identity changed everythinghttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/zdmaAyn2bxw/2017-year-identity-changed-everything-230080
https://marketingland.com/2017-year-identity-changed-everything-230080Columnist Mike Sands takes a look back at this year's notable events in digital advertising and examines the underlying theme of identity that's transforming brands.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=zdmaAyn2bxw:WTEB02J2mAM:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=zdmaAyn2bxw:WTEB02J2mAM:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/zdmaAyn2bxw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>A-From MTTChannel: Martech: Analytics & DataMartech ColumnWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:49:30 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230080Mike Sands2017-12-13T19:49:30ZGoogle bringing the Assistant to tablets and Lollipop Android phoneshttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/NN7LV19btS8/google-bringing-assistant-tablets-lollipop-android-phones-288304
https://searchengineland.com/google-bringing-assistant-tablets-lollipop-android-phones-288304The move comes against the backdrop of accelerating virtual assistant usage and intensifying competition.
The post Google bringing the Assistant to tablets and Lollipop Android phones appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/NN7LV19btS8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>AmazonApple: SiriChannel: SEOGoogleGoogle: AndroidGoogle: Google AssistantMicrosoft: CortanaWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:31:36 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288304Greg Sterling2017-12-13T19:31:36ZSamsung Galaxy had the most-watched ad on YouTube in November with 23.9M viewshttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/GDLLeKI7-lg/watched-ad-youtube-november-samsung-galaxy-spot-generated-23-9m-views-230199
https://marketingland.com/watched-ad-youtube-november-samsung-galaxy-spot-generated-23-9m-views-230199The ad owned more than a third of the views generated by the top 10 ads combined last month.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=GDLLeKI7-lg:kCg8dN-xud4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=GDLLeKI7-lg:kCg8dN-xud4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/GDLLeKI7-lg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: VideoGoogle: YouTubeStatistics: Online AdvertisingVideoWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:28:29 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230199Amy Gesenhues2017-12-13T19:28:29ZWhy the end of Google’s ‘First Click Free’ is a step in the right directionhttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/h3ufFH1iKXA/end-first-click-free-step-right-direction-229921
https://marketingland.com/end-first-click-free-step-right-direction-229921Subscription-based consumption is on the rise, and contributor Ben Barokas believes Google’s move should spur publishers to take control of their monetization strategies.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=h3ufFH1iKXA:gb1RVHqQGt4:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=h3ufFH1iKXA:gb1RVHqQGt4:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/h3ufFH1iKXA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: Display AdvertisingDisplay AdvertisingDisplay Advertising ColumnHow To Guides: Display AdvertisingHow To Guides: Marketing StrategyWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:23:37 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=229921Ben Barokas2017-12-13T19:23:37ZGoogle Search Console beta adds 12+ months of data to performance reportshttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/GnDg9ZWIBEQ/google-search-console-beta-adds-12-months-data-performance-reports-288309
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-beta-adds-12-months-data-performance-reports-288309After a few years of promises, Google is finally providing longer-term data in Google Search Console -- well, the beta version of Search Console.
The post Google Search Console beta adds 12+ months of data to performance reports appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/GnDg9ZWIBEQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: SEOGoogle: Search ConsoleGoogle: SEOWed, 13 Dec 2017 19:14:42 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288309Barry Schwartz2017-12-13T19:14:42ZVisualizing your site structure in advance of a major changehttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/DN1CZO-6Ei0/visualizing-site-structure-advance-major-change-286510
https://searchengineland.com/visualizing-site-structure-advance-major-change-286510Making big changes to your website structure? Columnist Dave Davies shares a data visualization method that can help you predict what effect your proposed site structure changes will have on SEO performance.
The post Visualizing your site structure in advance of a major change appeared first on...<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/DN1CZO-6Ei0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>All Things SEO ColumnChannel: SEOSEO - Search Engine OptimizationSEO: Domains & URLsSEO: GeneralWed, 13 Dec 2017 18:46:40 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=286510Dave Davies2017-12-13T18:46:40ZRetail is better off without Black Fridayhttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/lKaAK9tIbEE/retail-better-off-without-black-friday-229478
https://marketingland.com/retail-better-off-without-black-friday-229478With Black Friday discounts lasting weeks and even months, retailers can't keep pace with the likes of Amazon and Walmart. Contributor Evan Magliocca discusses how brands must evolve in order to thrive.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=lKaAK9tIbEE:B_r4emaKOiY:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=lKaAK9tIbEE:B_r4emaKOiY:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/lKaAK9tIbEE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: RetailE-CommerceHoliday RetailerHow To Guides: Retail MarketingRetail ColumnWed, 13 Dec 2017 17:32:13 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=229478Evan Magliocca2017-12-13T17:32:13ZThe vicious cycle of ROAS targets is killing your businesshttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/z6gQpTNpgks/vicious-cycle-roas-targets-killing-business-287275
https://searchengineland.com/vicious-cycle-roas-targets-killing-business-287275While many companies focus on return on ad spend (ROAS) as their primary KPI for search, columnist Andreas Reiffen believes that ROAS targets can often inhibit growth and new customer acquisition.
The post The vicious cycle of ROAS targets is killing your business appeared first on Search Engine...<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/z6gQpTNpgks" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: SEMPaid Search ColumnSearch MarketingSearch Marketing: GeneralWed, 13 Dec 2017 17:28:28 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=287275Andreas Reiffen2017-12-13T17:28:28ZHow on-site search can drive holiday revenue & help e-commerce sites compete against major retailershttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/geVg5SPGKFk/site-search-can-drive-holiday-revenue-help-e-commerce-sites-compete-major-retailers-288248
https://searchengineland.com/site-search-can-drive-holiday-revenue-help-e-commerce-sites-compete-major-retailers-288248According to SLI Systems, people who use on-site search are more likely to make a purchase than visitors who only browse a website.
The post How on-site search can drive holiday revenue &#038; help e-commerce sites compete against major retailers appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/geVg5SPGKFk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: RetailHoliday RetailerSearch EnginesSEO - Search Engine OptimizationSite & Enterprise SearchWed, 13 Dec 2017 16:00:44 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288248Amy Gesenhues2017-12-13T16:00:44ZFacebook ads can now link to brands’ WhatsApp accountshttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/dUoDlq1nk_0/facebook-ads-can-now-link-brands-whatsapp-accounts-230156
https://marketingland.com/facebook-ads-can-now-link-brands-whatsapp-accounts-230156After rolling out verified profiles for businesses on WhatsApp, Facebook is adding a tool for brands to promote their presence.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/dUoDlq1nk_0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: Social Media MarketingChat & Text Messaging AppsFacebookFacebook: AdvertisingFacebook: Buttons & PluginsFacebook: MessengerSocial Media MarketingSocial Media Marketing: AdvertisingWed, 13 Dec 2017 16:00:08 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230156Tim Peterson2017-12-13T16:00:08ZNew report: Brands set budgets and expectations for GDPR compliancehttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/V5i7CLZGwTw/new-report-brands-set-budgets-expectations-gdpr-compliance-230147
https://marketingland.com/new-report-brands-set-budgets-expectations-gdpr-compliance-230147Conducted by Forrester for governance solution provider Evidon, the study indicates that companies doing business in Europe are gearing up.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/V5i7CLZGwTw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>A-From MTTChannel: Martech: MarketingGDPRGDPR - General Data Protection RegulationWed, 13 Dec 2017 15:31:30 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230147Barry Levine2017-12-13T15:31:30ZNet pioneers tell FCC: ‘You don’t understand how the internet works’http://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/zNeWpqPT7oI/net-pioneers-tell-fcc-dont-understand-internet-works-230114
https://marketingland.com/net-pioneers-tell-fcc-dont-understand-internet-works-230114An open letter by key inventors of the internet asks the federal agency to delay its vote on Thursday on whether to remove net neutrality.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/zNeWpqPT7oI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>A-From MTTChannel: Martech: MarketingWed, 13 Dec 2017 15:22:56 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230114Barry Levine2017-12-13T15:22:56ZMoz the Monster: Anatomy of an (Averted) Brand Crisishttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7715231
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/22897\">Dr-Pete</a></p><p>On the morning of Friday, November 10, we woke up to the news that John Lewis had launched an ad campaign <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/10/john-lewis-christmas-ad-2017-meet-moz-the-monster-under-the-bed" target="_blank">called "Moz the Monster</a>". If you're from the UK, John Lewis needs no introduction, but for our American audience, they're a high-end retail chain that's gained a reputation for a decade of amazing Christmas ads.
</p><p style="text-align: center">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sa5dzQhvbiI?rel=0" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="">
</iframe>
</p><p>It's estimated that John Lewis spent upwards of £7m on this campaign (roughly $9.4M). It quickly became clear that they had organized a multi-channel effort, including a #mozthemonster Twitter campaign.</p><p>From a consumer perspective, Moz was just a lovable blue monster. From the perspective of a company that has spent years building a brand, John Lewis was potentially going to rewrite what "Moz" meant to the broader world. From a search perspective, we were facing a rare possibility of competing for our own brand on Google results if this campaign went viral (and John Lewis has a solid history of viral campaigns).<br></p><h2>Step #1: Don't panic</h2><p>At the speed of social media, it can be hard to stop and take a breath, but you have to remember that that speed cuts both ways. If you're too quick to respond and make a mistake, that mistake travels at the same speed and can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating exactly the disaster you feared.
</p><p>The first step is to get multiple perspectives quickly. I took to Slack in the morning (I'm two hours ahead of the Seattle team) to find out who was awake. Two of our UK team (Jo and Eli) were quick to respond, which had the added benefit of getting us the local perspective.</p><p>Collectively, we decided that, in the spirit of our TAGFEE philosophy, a friendly monster deserved a friendly response. Even if we chose to look at it purely from a pragmatic, tactical standpoint, John Lewis wasn't a competitor, and going in metaphorical guns-blazing against a furry blue monster and the little boy he befriended could've been step one toward a reputation nightmare.</p><h2>Step #2: Respond (carefully)</h2><p>In some cases, you may choose not to respond, but in this case we felt that friendly engagement was our best approach. Since the Seattle team was finishing their first cup of coffee, I decided to test the waters with a tweet from my personal account:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-1-52112.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>I've got a smaller audience than the main Moz account, and a personal tweet as the west coast was getting in gear was less exposure. The initial response was positive, and we even got a little bit of feedback, such as suggestions to monitor UK Google SERPs (see "Step #3").
</p><p>Our community team (thanks, Tyler!) quickly followed up with an official tweet:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-2-67547.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>While we didn't get direct engagement from John Lewis, the general community response was positive. Roger Mozbot and Moz the Monster could live in peace, at least for now.
</p><h2>Step #3: Measure</h2><p>There was a longer-term fear – would engagement with the Moz the Monster campaign alter Google SERPs for Moz-related keywords? Google has become an incredibly dynamic engine, and the meaning of any given phrase can rewrite itself based on how searchers engage with that phrase. I decided to track "moz" itself across both the US and UK.
</p><p>In that first day of the official campaign launch, searches for "moz" were already showing news ("Top Stories") results in the US and UK, with the text-only version in the US:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-3-19699.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>...and the richer Top Stories carousel in the UK:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-4-117106.jpg" style="border: 0">
</p><p>The Guardian article that announced the campaign launch was also ranking organically, near the bottom of page one. So, even on day one, we were seeing some brand encroachment and knew we had to keep track of the situation on a daily basis.
</p><p>Just two days later (November 12), Moz the Monster had captured four page-one organic results for "moz" in the UK (at the bottom of the page):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-5-44450.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>While it still wasn't time to panic, John Lewis' campaign was clearly having an impact on Google SERPs.
</p><h2>Step #4: Surprises</h2><p>On November 13, it looked like the SERPs might be returning to normal. The Moz Blog had regained the Top Stories block in both US and UK results:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-9-89958.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>We weren't in the clear yet, though. A couple of days later, a plagiarism scandal broke, and it was dominating the UK news for "moz" by November 18:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster10-9698.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>This story also migrated into organic SERPs after The Guardian published an op-ed piece. Fortunately for John Lewis, the follow-up story didn't last very long. It's an important reminder, though, that you can't take your eyes off of the ball just because it seems to be rolling in the right direction.
</p><h2>Step #5: Results</h2><p>It's one thing to see changes in the SERPs, but how was all of this impacting search trends and our actual traffic? Here's the data from Google Trends for a 4-week period around the Moz the Monster launch (2 weeks on either side):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-6-12570.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>The top graph is US trends data, and the bottom graph is UK. The large spike in the middle of the UK graph is November 10, where you can see that interest in the search "moz" increased dramatically. However, this spike fell off fairly quickly and US interest was relatively unaffected.
</p><p>Let's look at the same time period for Google Search Console impression and click data. First, the US data (isolated to just the keyword "moz"):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-7-10552.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>There was almost no change in impressions or clicks in the US market. Now, the UK data:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-8-9627.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>Here, the launch spike in impressions is very clear, and closely mirrors the Google Trends data. However, clicks to Moz.com were, like the US market, unaffected. Hindsight is 20/20, and we were trying to make decisions on the fly, but the short-term shift in Google SERPs had very little impact on clicks to our site. People looking for Moz the Monster and people looking for Moz the search marketing tool are, not shockingly, two very different groups.
</p><p>Ultimately, the impact of this campaign was short-lived, but it is interesting to see how quickly a SERP can rewrite itself based on the changing world, especially with an injection of ad dollars. At one point (in UK results), Moz the Monster had replaced Moz.com in over half (5 of 8) page-one organic spots and Top Stories – an impressive and somewhat alarming feat.
</p><p>By December 2, Moz the Monster had completely disappeared from US and UK SERPs for the phrase "moz". New, short-term signals can rewrite search results, but when those signals fade, results often return to normal. So, remember not to panic and track real, bottom-line results.
</p><h2>Your crisis plan</h2><p>So, how can we generalize this to other brand crises? What happens when someone else's campaign treads on your brand's hard-fought territory? Let's restate our 5-step process:</p><h3>(1) Remember not to panic</h3><p>The very word "crisis" almost demands panic, but remember that you can make any problem worse. I realize that's not very comforting, but unless your office is actually on fire, there's time to stop and assess the situation. Get multiple perspectives and make sure you're not overreacting.</p><h3>(2) Be cautiously proactive</h3><p>Unless there's a very good reason not to (such as a legal reason), it's almost always best to be proactive and respond to the situation on your own terms. At least acknowledge the situation, preferably with a touch of humor. These brand intrusions are, by their nature, high profile, and if you pretend it's not happening, you'll just look clueless.</p><h3>(3) Track the impact</h3><p>As soon as possible, start collecting data. These situations move quickly, and search rankings can change overnight in 2017. Find out what impact the event is really having as quickly as possible, even if you have to track some of it by hand. Don't wait for the perfect metrics or tracking tools.</p><h3>(4) Don't get complacent</h3><p>Search results are volatile and social media is fickle – don't assume that a lull or short-term change means you can stop and rest. Keep tracking, at least for a few days and preferably for a couple of weeks (depending on the severity of the crisis).</p><h3>(5) Measure bottom-line results</h3><p>As the days go by, you'll be able to more clearly see the impact. Track as deeply as you can – long-term rankings, traffic, even sales/conversions where necessary. This is the data that tells you if the short-term impact in (3) is really doing damage or is just superficial.</p><h2>The real John Lewis</h2><p>Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to someone who has felt a much longer-term impact of John Lewis' succesful holiday campaigns. Twitter user and computer science teacher <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlewis" target="_blank">@johnlewis</a> has weathered his own brand crisis year after year with grace and humor:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster11-49440.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>So, a hat-tip to John Lewis, and, on behalf of Moz, a very happy holidays to Moz the Monster!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/22897\">Dr-Pete</a></p><p>On the morning of Friday, November 10, we woke up to the news that John Lewis had launched an ad campaign <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/10/john-lewis-christmas-ad-2017-meet-moz-the-monster-under-the-bed" target="_blank">called "Moz the Monster</a>". If you're from the UK, John Lewis needs no introduction, but for our American audience, they're a high-end retail chain that's gained a reputation for a decade of amazing Christmas ads.
</p><p style="text-align: center">
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sa5dzQhvbiI?rel=0" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="">
</iframe>
</p><p>It's estimated that John Lewis spent upwards of £7m on this campaign (roughly $9.4M). It quickly became clear that they had organized a multi-channel effort, including a #mozthemonster Twitter campaign.</p><p>From a consumer perspective, Moz was just a lovable blue monster. From the perspective of a company that has spent years building a brand, John Lewis was potentially going to rewrite what "Moz" meant to the broader world. From a search perspective, we were facing a rare possibility of competing for our own brand on Google results if this campaign went viral (and John Lewis has a solid history of viral campaigns).<br></p><h2>Step #1: Don't panic</h2><p>At the speed of social media, it can be hard to stop and take a breath, but you have to remember that that speed cuts both ways. If you're too quick to respond and make a mistake, that mistake travels at the same speed and can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating exactly the disaster you feared.
</p><p>The first step is to get multiple perspectives quickly. I took to Slack in the morning (I'm two hours ahead of the Seattle team) to find out who was awake. Two of our UK team (Jo and Eli) were quick to respond, which had the added benefit of getting us the local perspective.</p><p>Collectively, we decided that, in the spirit of our TAGFEE philosophy, a friendly monster deserved a friendly response. Even if we chose to look at it purely from a pragmatic, tactical standpoint, John Lewis wasn't a competitor, and going in metaphorical guns-blazing against a furry blue monster and the little boy he befriended could've been step one toward a reputation nightmare.</p><h2>Step #2: Respond (carefully)</h2><p>In some cases, you may choose not to respond, but in this case we felt that friendly engagement was our best approach. Since the Seattle team was finishing their first cup of coffee, I decided to test the waters with a tweet from my personal account:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-1-52112.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>I've got a smaller audience than the main Moz account, and a personal tweet as the west coast was getting in gear was less exposure. The initial response was positive, and we even got a little bit of feedback, such as suggestions to monitor UK Google SERPs (see "Step #3").
</p><p>Our community team (thanks, Tyler!) quickly followed up with an official tweet:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-2-67547.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>While we didn't get direct engagement from John Lewis, the general community response was positive. Roger Mozbot and Moz the Monster could live in peace, at least for now.
</p><h2>Step #3: Measure</h2><p>There was a longer-term fear – would engagement with the Moz the Monster campaign alter Google SERPs for Moz-related keywords? Google has become an incredibly dynamic engine, and the meaning of any given phrase can rewrite itself based on how searchers engage with that phrase. I decided to track "moz" itself across both the US and UK.
</p><p>In that first day of the official campaign launch, searches for "moz" were already showing news ("Top Stories") results in the US and UK, with the text-only version in the US:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-3-19699.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>...and the richer Top Stories carousel in the UK:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-4-117106.jpg" style="border: 0">
</p><p>The Guardian article that announced the campaign launch was also ranking organically, near the bottom of page one. So, even on day one, we were seeing some brand encroachment and knew we had to keep track of the situation on a daily basis.
</p><p>Just two days later (November 12), Moz the Monster had captured four page-one organic results for "moz" in the UK (at the bottom of the page):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-5-44450.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>While it still wasn't time to panic, John Lewis' campaign was clearly having an impact on Google SERPs.
</p><h2>Step #4: Surprises</h2><p>On November 13, it looked like the SERPs might be returning to normal. The Moz Blog had regained the Top Stories block in both US and UK results:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-9-89958.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>We weren't in the clear yet, though. A couple of days later, a plagiarism scandal broke, and it was dominating the UK news for "moz" by November 18:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster10-9698.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>This story also migrated into organic SERPs after The Guardian published an op-ed piece. Fortunately for John Lewis, the follow-up story didn't last very long. It's an important reminder, though, that you can't take your eyes off of the ball just because it seems to be rolling in the right direction.
</p><h2>Step #5: Results</h2><p>It's one thing to see changes in the SERPs, but how was all of this impacting search trends and our actual traffic? Here's the data from Google Trends for a 4-week period around the Moz the Monster launch (2 weeks on either side):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-6-12570.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>The top graph is US trends data, and the bottom graph is UK. The large spike in the middle of the UK graph is November 10, where you can see that interest in the search "moz" increased dramatically. However, this spike fell off fairly quickly and US interest was relatively unaffected.
</p><p>Let's look at the same time period for Google Search Console impression and click data. First, the US data (isolated to just the keyword "moz"):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-7-10552.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>There was almost no change in impressions or clicks in the US market. Now, the UK data:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-8-9627.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>Here, the launch spike in impressions is very clear, and closely mirrors the Google Trends data. However, clicks to Moz.com were, like the US market, unaffected. Hindsight is 20/20, and we were trying to make decisions on the fly, but the short-term shift in Google SERPs had very little impact on clicks to our site. People looking for Moz the Monster and people looking for Moz the search marketing tool are, not shockingly, two very different groups.
</p><p>Ultimately, the impact of this campaign was short-lived, but it is interesting to see how quickly a SERP can rewrite itself based on the changing world, especially with an injection of ad dollars. At one point (in UK results), Moz the Monster had replaced Moz.com in over half (5 of 8) page-one organic spots and Top Stories – an impressive and somewhat alarming feat.
</p><p>By December 2, Moz the Monster had completely disappeared from US and UK SERPs for the phrase "moz". New, short-term signals can rewrite search results, but when those signals fade, results often return to normal. So, remember not to panic and track real, bottom-line results.
</p><h2>Your crisis plan</h2><p>So, how can we generalize this to other brand crises? What happens when someone else's campaign treads on your brand's hard-fought territory? Let's restate our 5-step process:</p><h3>(1) Remember not to panic</h3><p>The very word "crisis" almost demands panic, but remember that you can make any problem worse. I realize that's not very comforting, but unless your office is actually on fire, there's time to stop and assess the situation. Get multiple perspectives and make sure you're not overreacting.</p><h3>(2) Be cautiously proactive</h3><p>Unless there's a very good reason not to (such as a legal reason), it's almost always best to be proactive and respond to the situation on your own terms. At least acknowledge the situation, preferably with a touch of humor. These brand intrusions are, by their nature, high profile, and if you pretend it's not happening, you'll just look clueless.</p><h3>(3) Track the impact</h3><p>As soon as possible, start collecting data. These situations move quickly, and search rankings can change overnight in 2017. Find out what impact the event is really having as quickly as possible, even if you have to track some of it by hand. Don't wait for the perfect metrics or tracking tools.</p><h3>(4) Don't get complacent</h3><p>Search results are volatile and social media is fickle – don't assume that a lull or short-term change means you can stop and rest. Keep tracking, at least for a few days and preferably for a couple of weeks (depending on the severity of the crisis).</p><h3>(5) Measure bottom-line results</h3><p>As the days go by, you'll be able to more clearly see the impact. Track as deeply as you can – long-term rankings, traffic, even sales/conversions where necessary. This is the data that tells you if the short-term impact in (3) is really doing damage or is just superficial.</p><h2>The real John Lewis</h2><p>Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to someone who has felt a much longer-term impact of John Lewis' succesful holiday campaigns. Twitter user and computer science teacher <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlewis" target="_blank">@johnlewis</a> has weathered his own brand crisis year after year with grace and humor:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster11-49440.png" style="border: 0">
</p><p>So, a hat-tip to John Lewis, and, on behalf of Moz, a very happy holidays to Moz the Monster!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7715231.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 13 Dec 2017 11:21:18 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/moz-the-monster-anatomy-of-a-brand-crisisDr-Pete2017-12-13T11:21:18ZHurricane Irma was the No. 1 top trending Google search in the US & globally for 2017http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/DnFYwTWN0sQ/hurricane-irma-no-1-top-trending-google-search-u-s-globally-2017-288256
https://searchengineland.com/hurricane-irma-no-1-top-trending-google-search-u-s-globally-2017-288256Google has released its top trending searches of the year, covering everything from the most searched people and news to celebrity break-ups.
The post Hurricane Irma was the No. 1 top trending Google search in the US &#038; globally for 2017 appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/DnFYwTWN0sQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: ConsumerGoogle: TrendsGoogle: Web SearchWed, 13 Dec 2017 08:05:35 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288256Amy Gesenhues2017-12-13T08:05:35ZSearchCap: Google’s SEO guide, Microsoft outings app & data SEOhttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/Z1urNE2NInw/searchcap-googles-seo-guide-microsoft-outings-app-data-seo-288258
https://searchengineland.com/searchcap-googles-seo-guide-microsoft-outings-app-data-seo-288258Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The post SearchCap: Google&#8217;s SEO guide, Microsoft outings app &#038; data SEO appeared first on Search Engine Land.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:-BTjWOF_DHI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:-BTjWOF_DHI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=Z1urNE2NInw:oy_VDTq_trQ:V-t1I-SPZMU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=V-t1I-SPZMU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/Z1urNE2NInw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: IndustrySearchCapTue, 12 Dec 2017 21:00:34 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288258Barry Schwartz2017-12-12T21:00:34ZMarketing Day: Twitter news, local search tactics & on-site search for e-commercehttp://feeds.marketingland.com/~r/mktingland/~3/FuGqQ1hKz50/marketing-day-twitter-news-local-search-tactics-site-search-e-commerce-230160
https://marketingland.com/marketing-day-twitter-news-local-search-tactics-site-search-e-commerce-230160Here's our recap of what happened in online marketing today, as reported on Marketing Land and other places across the web.<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=FuGqQ1hKz50:k7NTx4ZLZLA:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.marketingland.com/~ff/mktingland?a=FuGqQ1hKz50:k7NTx4ZLZLA:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/mktingland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/mktingland/~4/FuGqQ1hKz50" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: CMO ZoneMarketing DayTue, 12 Dec 2017 21:00:08 GMThttps://marketingland.com/?p=230160Amy Gesenhues2017-12-12T21:00:08ZCompare 13 leading SEO platformshttp://feeds.searchengineland.com/~r/searchengineland/~3/K12c1vlRHXE/compare-13-leading-seo-platforms-288245
https://searchengineland.com/compare-13-leading-seo-platforms-288245SEO software comes in many shapes and sizes, from rank-checking tools and keyword research toolsets to full-service solutions that manage keywords, links, competitive intelligence, international rankings, social signal integration and workflow rights and roles. How do you decide which one is right...<br/>
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<a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:yIl2AUoC8zA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:-BTjWOF_DHI"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:-BTjWOF_DHI" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:F7zBnMyn0Lo"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:F7zBnMyn0Lo" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:7Q72WNTAKBA"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=7Q72WNTAKBA" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:V_sGLiPBpWU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?i=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:V_sGLiPBpWU" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:qj6IDK7rITs"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"></img></a> <a href="http://feeds.searchengineland.com/~ff/searchengineland?a=K12c1vlRHXE:3ICF0BZlXzE:V-t1I-SPZMU"><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/searchengineland?d=V-t1I-SPZMU" border="0"></img></a>
</div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/searchengineland/~4/K12c1vlRHXE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Channel: SEOSMX & DMD AlertsTue, 12 Dec 2017 18:40:51 GMThttps://searchengineland.com/?p=288245Digital Marketing Depot2017-12-12T18:40:51ZKeyword Research Beats Nate Silver's 2016 Presidential Election Predictionhttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7704192
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/514135\">BritneyMuller</a></p><p>100% of statisticians would say this is a terrible method for predicting elections. However, in the case of 2016’s presidential election, analyzing the geographic search volume of a few telling keywords “predicted” the outcome more accurately than Nate Silver himself.
</p><p>The 2016 US Presidential Election was a nail-biter, and many of us followed along with the famed statistician’s predictions in real time on <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/" target="_blank">FiveThirtyEight.com</a>. Silver’s predictions, though more accurate than many, were still disrupted by the election results.
</p><p>In an effort to better understand our country (and current political chaos), I dove into keyword research state-by-state searching for insights. Keywords can be powerful indicators of intent, thought, and behavior. What keyword searches might indicate a personal political opinion? Might there be a common denominator search among people with the same political beliefs?</p><p>It’s generally agreed that <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/pj_14-10-21_mediapolarization-08/" target="_blank">Fox News leans to the right and CNN leans to the left</a>. And if we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that the news you consume can have a strong impact on what you believe, in addition to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" target="_blank">confirmation bias</a> already present in seeking out particular sources of information.
</p><p>My crazy idea: What if Republican states showed more “fox news” searches than “cnn”? What if those searches revealed a bias and an intent that exit polling seemed to obscure?
</p><p>The limitations to this research were pretty obvious. Watching Fox News or CNN doesn’t necessarily correlate with voter behavior, but could it be a better indicator than the polls? My research says yes. I researched other media outlets as well, but the top two ideologically opposed news sources — in any of the 50 states — were consistently Fox News and CNN.</p><p>Using Google Keyword Planner (connected to a high-paying Adwords account to view the most accurate/non-bucketed data), I evaluated each state's search volume for “fox news” and “cnn.”</p><p>Eight states showed the exact same search volumes for both. Excluding those from my initial test, my results accurately predicted 42/42 of the 2016 presidential state outcomes including North Carolina and Wisconsin (which Silver mis-predicted). Interestingly, "cnn" even mirrored Hillary Clinton, similarly winning the popular vote (25,633,333 vs. 23,675,000 average monthly search volume for the United States).
</p><p>In contrast, Nate Silver accurately predicted 45/50 states using a <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-users-guide-to-fivethirtyeights-2016-general-election-forecast/" target="_blank">statistical methodology based on polling results</a>.
</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" alt="" "=""></a>
</p><p class="full-width caption">Click for a larger image</p><p>This gets even more interesting:
</p><p>The eight states showing the same average monthly search volume for both “cnn” and “fox news” are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
</p><p>However, I was able to dive deeper via GrepWords API (a keyword research tool that actually powers <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'Keyword Research Beats Nate Silver’s 2016 Presidential Election Prediction', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer's</a> data), to discover that Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Ohio each have slightly different “cnn” vs “fox news” search averages over the previous 12-month period. Those new search volume averages are:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th><br>
</th>
<th>
<p>“fox news” avg monthly search volume
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>“cnn” avg monthly search volume
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>KWR Prediction
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>2016 Vote
</p>
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Arizona
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>566333
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>518583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Nevada
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>213833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>214583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>New Mexico
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>138833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>142916
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Ohio
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>845833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>781083
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Pennsylvania
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1030500
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1063583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Four out of five isn’t bad! This brought my new prediction up to 46/47.
</p><p>Silver and I each got Pennsylvania wrong. The GrepWords API shows the average monthly search volume for “cnn” was ~33,083 searches higher than “fox news” (to put that in perspective, that’s ~0.26% of the state’s population). This tight-knit keyword research theory is perfectly reflected in Trump’s 48.2% win against Clinton’s 47.5%.
</p><p>Nate Silver and I have very different day jobs, and he wouldn’t make many of these hasty generalizations. Any prediction method can be right a couple times. However, it got me thinking about the power of keyword research: how it can reveal searcher intent, predict behavior, and sometimes even defy the logic of things like statistics.
</p><p>It’s also easy to predict the past. What happens when we apply this model to today's Senate race?
</p><h2>Can we apply this theory to Alabama’s special election in the US Senate? </h2><p>After completing the above research on a whim, I realized that we’re on the cusp of yet another hotly contested, extremely close election: the upcoming Alabama senate race, between controversy-laden Republican Roy Moore and Democratic challenger Doug Jones, fighting for a Senate seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat since 1992.
</p><p>I researched each Alabama county — 67 in total — for good measure. There are obviously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/11/why-polls-showing-a-20-point-spread-in-alabama-arent-actually-wrong/" target="_blank">a ton of variables</a> at play. However, 52 out of the 67 counties (77.6%) 2016 presidential county votes are correctly “predicted” by my theory.
</p><p>Even when giving the Democratic nominee more weight to the very low search volume counties (19 counties showed a search volume difference of less than 500), my numbers lean pretty far to the right (48/67 Republican counties):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dd9d10a2.66116469.png">
</p><p>It should be noted that my theory incorrectly guessed two of the five largest Alabama counties, Montgomery and Jefferson, which both voted Democrat in 2016.
</p><p>Greene and Macon Counties should both vote Democrat; their very slight “cnn” over “fox news” search volume is confirmed by their previous presidential election results.
</p><p>I realize state elections are not won by county, they’re won by popular vote, and the state of Alabama searches for “fox news” 204,000 more times a month than “cnn” (to put that in perspective, that’s around ~4.27% of Alabama’s population).</p><p>All things aside and regardless of outcome, this was an interesting exploration into how keyword research can offer us a glimpse into popular opinion, future behavior, and search intent. What do you think? Any other predictions we could make to test this theory? What other keywords or factors would you look at? <a href="https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-electoral-prediction#comments" target="_blank">Let us know in the comments</a>.<br>
</p><p>Also, if you've enjoyed this post, check out Sam Wang's <a href="http://election.princeton.edu/2016/04/26/google-wide-association-studies/" target="_blank">Google-Wide Association Studies</a>! --Fascinating read.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/514135\">BritneyMuller</a></p><p>100% of statisticians would say this is a terrible method for predicting elections. However, in the case of 2016’s presidential election, analyzing the geographic search volume of a few telling keywords “predicted” the outcome more accurately than Nate Silver himself.
</p><p>The 2016 US Presidential Election was a nail-biter, and many of us followed along with the famed statistician’s predictions in real time on <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/" target="_blank">FiveThirtyEight.com</a>. Silver’s predictions, though more accurate than many, were still disrupted by the election results.
</p><p>In an effort to better understand our country (and current political chaos), I dove into keyword research state-by-state searching for insights. Keywords can be powerful indicators of intent, thought, and behavior. What keyword searches might indicate a personal political opinion? Might there be a common denominator search among people with the same political beliefs?</p><p>It’s generally agreed that <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/pj_14-10-21_mediapolarization-08/" target="_blank">Fox News leans to the right and CNN leans to the left</a>. And if we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that the news you consume can have a strong impact on what you believe, in addition to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" target="_blank">confirmation bias</a> already present in seeking out particular sources of information.
</p><p>My crazy idea: What if Republican states showed more “fox news” searches than “cnn”? What if those searches revealed a bias and an intent that exit polling seemed to obscure?
</p><p>The limitations to this research were pretty obvious. Watching Fox News or CNN doesn’t necessarily correlate with voter behavior, but could it be a better indicator than the polls? My research says yes. I researched other media outlets as well, but the top two ideologically opposed news sources — in any of the 50 states — were consistently Fox News and CNN.</p><p>Using Google Keyword Planner (connected to a high-paying Adwords account to view the most accurate/non-bucketed data), I evaluated each state's search volume for “fox news” and “cnn.”</p><p>Eight states showed the exact same search volumes for both. Excluding those from my initial test, my results accurately predicted 42/42 of the 2016 presidential state outcomes including North Carolina and Wisconsin (which Silver mis-predicted). Interestingly, "cnn" even mirrored Hillary Clinton, similarly winning the popular vote (25,633,333 vs. 23,675,000 average monthly search volume for the United States).
</p><p>In contrast, Nate Silver accurately predicted 45/50 states using a <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-users-guide-to-fivethirtyeights-2016-general-election-forecast/" target="_blank">statistical methodology based on polling results</a>.
</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" alt="" "=""></a>
</p><p class="full-width caption">Click for a larger image</p><p>This gets even more interesting:
</p><p>The eight states showing the same average monthly search volume for both “cnn” and “fox news” are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
</p><p>However, I was able to dive deeper via GrepWords API (a keyword research tool that actually powers <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'Keyword Research Beats Nate Silver’s 2016 Presidential Election Prediction', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer's</a> data), to discover that Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Ohio each have slightly different “cnn” vs “fox news” search averages over the previous 12-month period. Those new search volume averages are:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th><br>
</th>
<th>
<p>“fox news” avg monthly search volume
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>“cnn” avg monthly search volume
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>KWR Prediction
</p>
</th>
<th>
<p>2016 Vote
</p>
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Arizona
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>566333
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>518583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Nevada
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>213833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>214583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>New Mexico
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>138833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>142916
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Ohio
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>845833
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>781083
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>Pennsylvania
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1030500
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>1063583
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Hillary
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>Trump
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>Four out of five isn’t bad! This brought my new prediction up to 46/47.
</p><p>Silver and I each got Pennsylvania wrong. The GrepWords API shows the average monthly search volume for “cnn” was ~33,083 searches higher than “fox news” (to put that in perspective, that’s ~0.26% of the state’s population). This tight-knit keyword research theory is perfectly reflected in Trump’s 48.2% win against Clinton’s 47.5%.
</p><p>Nate Silver and I have very different day jobs, and he wouldn’t make many of these hasty generalizations. Any prediction method can be right a couple times. However, it got me thinking about the power of keyword research: how it can reveal searcher intent, predict behavior, and sometimes even defy the logic of things like statistics.
</p><p>It’s also easy to predict the past. What happens when we apply this model to today's Senate race?
</p><h2>Can we apply this theory to Alabama’s special election in the US Senate? </h2><p>After completing the above research on a whim, I realized that we’re on the cusp of yet another hotly contested, extremely close election: the upcoming Alabama senate race, between controversy-laden Republican Roy Moore and Democratic challenger Doug Jones, fighting for a Senate seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat since 1992.
</p><p>I researched each Alabama county — 67 in total — for good measure. There are obviously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/11/why-polls-showing-a-20-point-spread-in-alabama-arent-actually-wrong/" target="_blank">a ton of variables</a> at play. However, 52 out of the 67 counties (77.6%) 2016 presidential county votes are correctly “predicted” by my theory.
</p><p>Even when giving the Democratic nominee more weight to the very low search volume counties (19 counties showed a search volume difference of less than 500), my numbers lean pretty far to the right (48/67 Republican counties):
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dd9d10a2.66116469.png">
</p><p>It should be noted that my theory incorrectly guessed two of the five largest Alabama counties, Montgomery and Jefferson, which both voted Democrat in 2016.
</p><p>Greene and Macon Counties should both vote Democrat; their very slight “cnn” over “fox news” search volume is confirmed by their previous presidential election results.
</p><p>I realize state elections are not won by county, they’re won by popular vote, and the state of Alabama searches for “fox news” 204,000 more times a month than “cnn” (to put that in perspective, that’s around ~4.27% of Alabama’s population).</p><p>All things aside and regardless of outcome, this was an interesting exploration into how keyword research can offer us a glimpse into popular opinion, future behavior, and search intent. What do you think? Any other predictions we could make to test this theory? What other keywords or factors would you look at? <a href="https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-electoral-prediction#comments" target="_blank">Let us know in the comments</a>.<br>
</p><p>Also, if you've enjoyed this post, check out Sam Wang's <a href="http://election.princeton.edu/2016/04/26/google-wide-association-studies/" target="_blank">Google-Wide Association Studies</a>! --Fascinating read.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7704192.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Tue, 12 Dec 2017 11:29:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-2016-presidential-predictionBritneyMuller2017-12-12T11:29:00ZNot-Actually-the-Best Local SEO Practiceshttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7686518
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/13017\">MiriamEllis</a></p><p>It’s never fun being the bearer of bad news.
</p><p>You’re on the phone with an amazing prospect. Let’s say it’s a growing appliance sales and repair provider with 75 locations in the western US. Your agency would absolutely love to onboard this client, and the contact is telling you, with some pride, that they’re already ranking pretty well for about half of their locations.
</p><p>With the right strategy, getting them the rest of the way there should be no problem at all.
</p><p>But then you notice something, and your end of the phone conversation falls a little quiet as you click through from one of their Google My Business listings in Visalia to Streetview and see… not a commercial building, but a house. <em>Uh-oh</em>. In answer to your delicately worded question, you find out that 45 of this brand’s listings have been built around the private homes of their repairmen — an egregious violation of <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a>.
</p><p>“I hate to tell you this…,” you clear your throat, and then you deliver <em>the bad news</em>.
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e148288f3.37415689.jpg" alt="marketingfoundations1.jpg">
</p><p>If you do in-house Local SEO, do it for clients, or even just answer questions in a forum, you’ve surely had the unenviable (yet vital) task of telling someone they’re “doing it wrong,” frequently after they’ve invested considerable resources in creating a marketing structure that threatens to topple due to a crack in its foundation. Sometimes you can patch the crack, but sometimes, whole edifices of bad marketing have to be demolished before safe and secure new buildings can be erected.
</p><p>Here are 5 of the commonest foundational marketing mistakes I’ve encountered over the years as a Local SEO consultant and forum participant. If you run into these in your own work, you’ll be doing someone a big favor by delivering “the bad news” as quickly as possible:
</p><h2>1. Creating GMB listings at ineligible addresses</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e151c61d6.08246492.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We need to rank for these other towns, because we want customers there. Well, no, we don’t really have offices there. We have P.O. Boxes/virtual offices/our employees’ houses.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p><a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a> state:
</p><ul>
<li>Make sure that your page is created at your actual, real-world location</li>
<li>PO Boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable.</li>
<li>Service-area businesses—businesses that serve customers at their locations—should have one page for the central office or location and designate a service area from that point. </li>
</ul><p>All of this adds up to Google saying you shouldn’t create a listing for anything other than a real-world location, but it’s extremely common to see a) spammers simply creating tons of listings for non-existent locations, b) people of good will not knowing the guidelines and doing the same thing, and c) service area businesses (SABs) feeling they have to create fake-location listings because Google won’t rank them for their service cities otherwise.
</p><p>In all three scenarios, the brand puts itself at risk for detection and listing removal. Google can catch them, competitors and consumers can catch them, and marketers can catch them. Once caught, any effort that was put into ranking and building reputation around a fake-location listing is wasted. Better to have devoted resources to risk-free marketing efforts that will add up to something real.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Advise the SAB owner to self-report the problem to Google. I know this sounds risky, but Google My Business forum Top Contributor <a href="https://www.sterlingsky.ca/">Joy Hawkins</a> let me know that <a href="https://www.localsearchforum.com/local-search/44278-forum-etiquette-when-someone-spamming.html">she’s never seen a case in which Google has punished a business that self-reported accidental spam</a>. The owner will likely need to un-verify the spam listings (<a href="https://moz.com/blog/delete-gmb-listing">see how to do that here</a>) and then Google will likely remove the ineligible listings, leaving only the eligible ones intact.
</p><p>What about dyed-in-the-wool spammers who know the guidelines and are violating them regardless, turning local pack results into useless junk? Get to the spam listing in Google Maps, click the “Suggest an edit” link, toggle the toggle to “Yes,” and choose the radio button for spam. Google may or may not act on your suggestion. If not, and the spam is misleading to consumers, I think it’s always a good idea to report it to the <a href="https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-My-Business/ct-p/GMB">Google My Business forum</a> in hopes that a volunteer Top Contributor may escalate an egregious case to a Google staffer.
</p><h2>2. Sharing phone numbers between multiple entities</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e15a666b7.84304260.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I run both my dog walking service and my karate classes out of my house, but I don’t want to have to pay for two different phone lines.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Our restaurant has 3 locations in the city now, but we want all the calls to go through one number for reservation purposes. It’s just easier.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“There are seven doctors at our practice. Front desk handles all calls. We can’t expect the doctors to answer their calls personally.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>There are actually multiple issues at hand on this one. First of all, Google’s guidelines state:
</p><ul>
<li>Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.</li>
<li>Use a local phone number instead of a central, call center helpline number whenever possible.</li>
<li>The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.</li>
</ul><p>This rules out having the phone number of a single location representing multiple locations.
</p><h4>Confusing to Google
</h4><p>Google has also been known in the past to phone businesses for verification purposes. Should a business answer “Jim’s Dog Walking” when a Google rep is calling to verify that the phone number is associated with “Jim’s Karate Lessons,” we’re in trouble. Shared phone numbers have also been suspected in the past of causing accidental merging of Google listings, though I’ve not seen a case of this in a couple of years.
</p><h4>Confusing for businesses
</h4><p>As for the multi-practitioner scenario, the reality is that some business models simply don’t allow for practitioners to answer their own phones. Calls for doctors, dentists, attorneys, etc. are traditionally routed through a front desk. This reality calls into question whether forward-facing listings should be built for these individuals at all. We’ll dive deeper into this topic below, in the section on multi-practitioner listings.
</p><h4>Confusing for the ecosystem
</h4><p>Beyond Google-related concerns, Moz Local’s awesome engineers have taught me some rather amazing things about the problems shared phone numbers can create for citation-building campaigns in the greater ecosystem. Many local business data platforms are highly dependent on unique phone numbers as a signal of entity uniqueness (the “P” in NAP is powerful!). So, for example, if you submit both Jim’s Dog Walking and Jim’s Bookkeeping to Infogroup with the same number, Infogroup may publish both listings, <em>but leave the phone number fields blank</em>! And without a phone number, a local business listing is pretty worthless.
</p><p>It’s because of realities like these that a unique phone number for each entity is a requirement of the Moz Local product, and should be a prerequisite for any citation building campaign.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Let the business owner know that a unique phone number for each business entity, each business location, and each forward-facing practitioner who wants to be listed is a necessary business expense (and, hey, likely tax deductible, too!). Once the investment has been made in the unique numbers, the work ahead involves editing all existing citations to reflect them. The free tool <a href="https://moz.com/local/search" target="_blank">Moz Check Listing</a> can help you instantly locate existing citations for the purpose of creating a spreadsheet that details the bad data, allowing you to start correcting it manually. Or, to save time, the business owner may wish to invest in a paid, automated citation correction product like <a href="https://moz.com/products/local" target="_blank">Moz Local</a>.
</p><p>Pro tip: Apart from removing local business listing stumbling blocks, unique phone numbers have an added bonus in that they enable the benefits of associating KPIs like clicks-to-call to a given entity, and existing numbers can be ported into call tracking numbers for even further analysis of traffic and conversions. You just can’t enjoy these benefits if you lump multiple entities together under a single, shared number.
</p><h2>3. Keyword stuffing GMB listing names</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16362811.10055424.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I have 5 locations in Dallas. How are my customers supposed to find the right one unless I add the neighborhood name to the business name on the listings?”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“We want customers to know we do both acupuncture and massage, so we put both in the listing name.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Well, no, the business name doesn’t actually have a city name in it, but my competitors are adding city names to their GMB listings and they’re outranking me!”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Long story short, it’s a blatant violation of Google’s guidelines to put extraneous keywords in the business name field of a GMB listing. Google states:
</p><ul>
<li>Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. </li>
<li>Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your listing being suspended. </li>
</ul><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>I consider this a genuine Local SEO toughie. On the one hand, Google’s lack of enforcement of these guidelines, and apparent lack of concern about the whole thing, makes it difficult to adequately alarm business owners about the risk of suspension. I’ve successfully reported keyword stuffing violations to Google and have had them act on my reports within 24 hours… only to have the spammy names reappear hours or days afterwards. If there’s a suspension of some kind going on here, I don’t see it.
</p><p>Simultaneously, Google’s local algo apparently continues to be influenced by exact keyword matches. When a business owner sees competitors outranking him via outlawed practices which Google appears to ignore, the Local SEO may feel slightly idiotic urging guideline-compliance from his patch of shaky ground.
</p><p>But, do it anyway. For two reasons:
</p><ol>
<li>If you’re not teaching business owners about the importance of brand building at this point, you’re not really teaching marketing. Ask the owner, “Are you into building a lasting brand, or are you hoping to get by on tricks?” Smart owners (and their marketers) will see that it’s a more legitimate strategy to build a future based on earning permanent local brand recognition for <em>Lincoln & Herndon</em>, than for <em>Springfield Car Accident Slip and Fall Personal Injury Lawyers Attorneys.</em></li>
<li>I find it interesting that, in all of Google’s guidelines, the word “suspended” is used only a few times, and one of these rare instances relates to spamming the business title field. In other words, Google is using the strongest possible language to warn against this practice, and that makes me quite nervous about tying large chunks of reputation and rankings to a tactic against which Google has forewarned. I remember that companies were doing all kinds of risky things on the eve of the <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change" target="_blank">Panda and Penguin updates</a> and they woke up to a changed webscape in which they were no longer winners. Because of this, I advocate alerting any business owner who is risking his livelihood to chancy shortcuts. Better to build things for real, for the long haul.</li>
</ol><p>Fortunately, it only takes a few seconds to sign into a GMB account and remove extraneous keywords from a business name. If it needs to be done at scale for large multi-location enterprises across the major aggregators, Moz Local can get the job done. Will removing spammy keywords from the GMB listing title cause the business to move down in Google’s local rankings? It’s possible that they will, but at least they’ll be able to go forward building real stuff, with the moral authority to report rule-breaking competitors and keep at it until Google acts.
</p><p>And tell owners not to worry about Google not being able to sort out a downtown location from an uptown one for consumers. Google’s ability to parse user proximity is getting better every day. Mobile-local packs prove this out. If one location is wrongly outranking another, chances are good the business needs to do <a href="https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit">an audit</a> to discover weaknesses that are holding the more appropriate listing back. That’s real strategy - no tricks!
</p><h2>4. Creating a multi-site morass</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16cd5934.12429006.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“So, to cover all 3 or our locations, we have greengrocerysandiego.com, greengrocerymonterey.com and greengrocerymendocino.com… but the problem is, the content on the three sites is kind of all the same. What should we do to make the sites different?”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“So, to cover all of our services, we have jimsappliancerepair.com, jimswashingmachinerepair.com, jimsdryerrepair.com, jimshotwaterheaterrepair.com, jimsrefrigeratorrepair.com. We’re about to buy jimsvacuumrepair.com … but the problem is, there’s not much content on any of these sites. It feels like management is getting out of hand.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Definitely a frequent topic in SEO forums, the practice of relying on exact match domains (EMDs) proliferates because of Google’s historic bias in their favor. The ranking influence of EMDs has been the subject of <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change#2012" target="_blank">a Google update</a>and has lessened over time. I wouldn’t want to try to rank for competitive terms with creditcards.com or insurance.com these days.
</p><p>But if you believe EMDs no longer work in the local-organic world, read this post in which a fellow’s surname/domain name gets mixed up with a distant city name and he ends up <a href="https://moz.com/ugc/case-study-the-interconnectedness-of-local-seo-and-exact-match-domains" target="_blank">ranking in the local packs for it</a>! Chances are, you see weak EMDs ranking all the time for your local searches — more’s the pity. And, no doubt, this ranking boost is the driving force behind local business models continuing to purchase multiple keyword-oriented domains to represent branches of their company or the variety of services they offer. This approach is problematic for 3 chief reasons:
</p><ol>
<li>It’s impractical. The majority of the forum threads I’ve encountered in which small-to-medium local businesses have ended up with two, or five, or ten domains invariably lead to the discovery that the websites are made up of either thin or <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content" target="_blank">duplicate content</a>. Larger enterprises are often guilty of the same. What seemed like a great idea at first, buying up all those EMDs, turns into an unmanageable morass of web properties that no one has the time to keep updated, to write for, or to market. </li>
<li>Specific to the multi-service business, it’s not a smart move to put single-location NAP on multiple websites. In other words, if your construction firm is located at 123 Main Street in Funky Town, but consumers and Google are finding that same physical address associated with fences.com, bathroomremodeling.com, decks.com, and kitchenremodeling.com, you are sowing confusion in the ecosystem. Which is the authoritative business associated with that address? Some business owners further compound problems by assuming they can then build separate sets of local business listings for each of these different service-oriented domains, violating Google’s guidelines, which state:<br><br><em>Do not create more than one page for each location of your business.</em><em><br></em><em><br></em>The whole thing can become a giant mess, instead of the clean, manageable simplicity of a single brand, tied to a single domain, with a single NAP signal.</li>
</ol><ol>
<li>With rare-to-nonexistent exceptions, I consider EMDs to be missed opportunities for brand building. Imagine, if instead of being Whole Foods at WholeFoods.com, the natural foods giant had decided they needed to try to squeeze a ranking boost out of buying 400+ domains to represent the eventual number of locations they now operate. WholeFoodsDallas.com, WholeFoodsMississauga.com, etc? Such an approach would get out of hand very fast. </li>
</ol><p>Even the smallest businesses should take cues from big commerce. Your brand is the magic password you want on every consumer’s lips, associated with every service you offer, in every location you open. As I <a href="https://moz.com/community/q/to-re-domain-or-not-re-domain-that-is-the-question" target="_blank">recently suggested to a Moz community member</a>, be proud to domain your flower shop as <em>rossirovetti.com</em> instead of hoping <em>FloralDelivery24hoursSanFrancisco.com </em>will boost your rankings. It’s authentic, easy to remember, looks trustworthy in the SERPs, and is ripe for memorable brand building.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>While I can’t speak to the minutiae of every single scenario, I’ve yet to be part of a discussion about multi-sites in the Local SEO community in which I didn’t advise consolidation. Basically, the business should choose a single, proud domain and, in most cases, 301 redirect the old sites to the main one, then work to get as many external links that pointed to the multi-sites to point to the chosen main site. <a href="https://moz.com/blog/2-become-1-merging-two-domains-made-us-an-seo-killing" target="_blank">This oldie but goodie from the Moz blog</a> provides a further technical checklist from a company that saw a 40% increase in traffic after consolidating domains. I’d recommend that any business that is nervous about handling the tech aspects of consolidation in-house should hire a qualified SEO to help them through the process.
</p><h2>5. Creating ill-considered practitioner listings</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e1769b7b1.50050410.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We have 5 dentists at the practice, but one moved/retired last month and we don’t know what to do with the GMB listing for him.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Dr. Green is outranking the practice in the local results for some reason, and it’s really annoying.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem: </h3><p>I’ve saved the most complex for last! Multi-practitioner listings can be a blessing, but they’re so often a bane that my position on creating them has evolved to a point where I only recommend building them in specific cases.
</p><p>When Google first enabled practitioner listings (listings that represent each doctor, lawyer, dentist, or agent within a business) I saw them as a golden opportunity for a given practice to dominate local search results with its presence. However, Google’s subsequent unwillingness to simply remove practitioner duplicates, coupled with the rollout of the <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-possum" target="_blank">Possum update</a> which filters out shared category/similar location listings, coupled with the number of instances I’ve seen in which practitioner listings end up outranking brand listings, has caused me to change my opinion of their benefits. I should also add that the business title field on practitioner listings is a hotbed of Google guideline violations — few business owners have ever read Google’s nitty gritty rules about how to name these types of listings.
</p><p>In a nutshell, practitioner listings gone awry can result in a bunch of wrongly-named listings often clouded by duplicates that Google won’t remove, all competing for the same keywords. Not good!
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>You’ll have multiple scenarios to address when offering advice about this topic.
</p><p>1.) If the business is brand new, and there is no record of it on the Internet as of yet, then I would only recommend creating practitioner listings if it is necessary to point out an area of specialization. So, for example if a medical practice has 5 MDs, the listing for the practice covers that, with no added listings needed. But, if a medical practice has 5 MDs and an Otolaryngologist, it may be good marketing to give the specialist his own listing, <em>because it has its own GMB category</em> and won’t be competing with the practice for rankings. *However, read on to understand the challenges being undertaken any time a multi-practitioner listing is created.
</p><p>2.) If the multi-practitioner business is not new, chances are very good that there are listings out there for present, past, and even deceased practitioners.
</p><ul>
<li>If a partner is current, be sure you point his listing at a landing page on the practice’s website, instead of at the homepage, see if you can differentiate categories, and do your utmost to optimize the practice’s own listing — the point here is to prevent practitioners from outranking the practice. What do I mean by optimization? Be sure the practice’s GMB listing is fully filled out, you’ve got amazing photos, you’re actively earning and responding to reviews, you’re publishing a Google Post at least once a week, and your citations across the web are consistent. These things should all strengthen the listing for the practice.</li>
<li>If a partner is no longer with the practice, it’s ideal to unverify the listing and ask Google to market it as moved to the practice — not to the practitioner’s new location. Sound goofy? <a href="https://searchengineland.com/cannot-ignore-practitioner-listings-gmb-case-study-253314" target="_blank">Read Joy Hawkins’ smart explanation of this convoluted issue</a>. </li>
<li>If, sadly, a practitioner has passed away, contact Google to show them an obituary so that the listing can be removed.</li>
<li>If a listing represents what is actually a solo practitioner (instead of a partner in a multi-practitioner business model) and his GMB listing is now competing with the listing for his business, you can ask Google to merge the two listings.</li>
</ul><p>3.) If a business wants to create practitioner listings, and they feel up to the task of handling any ranking or situational management concerns, there is one final proviso I’d add. Google’s guidelines state that practitioners should be “directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours” in order to qualify for a GMB listing. I’ve always found this requirement rather vague. Contactable by phone? Contactable in person? Google doesn’t specify. Presumably, a real estate agent in a multi-practitioner agency might be directly contactable, but as my graphic above illustrates, we wouldn’t really expect the same public availability of a surgeon, right? Point being, it may only make marketing sense to create a practitioner listing for someone who needs to be directly available to the consumer public for the business to function. I consider this a genuine grey area in the guidelines, so think it through carefully before acting.
</p><h2>Giving good help</h2><p>It’s genuinely an honor to advise owners and marketers who are strategizing for the success of local businesses. In our own small way, local SEO consultants live in the neighborhood Mister Rogers envisioned in which you could <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328" target="_blank">look for the helpers</a> when confronted with trouble. Given the livelihoods dependent on local commerce, rescuing a company from a foundational marketing mistake is satisfying work for people who like to be “helpers,” and it carries a weight of responsibility.
</p><p>I’ve worked in 3 different SEO forums over the past 10+ years, and I’d like to close with some things I’ve learned about helping:
</p><ol>
<li>Learn to ask the right questions. Small nuances in business models and scenarios can necessitate completely different advice. Don’t be scared to come back with second and third rounds of follow-up queries if someone hasn’t provided sufficient detail for you to advise them well. Read all details thoroughly before replying.</li>
<li>Always, always consult <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en" target="_blank">Google’s guidelines</a>, and link to them in your answers. It’s absolutely amazing how few owners and marketers have ever encountered them. Local SEOs are volunteer liaisons between Google and businesses. That’s just the way things have worked out.</li>
<li>Don’t say you’re sure unless you’re really sure. If a forum or client question necessitates a full audit to surface a useful answer, say so. Giving pat answers to complicated queries helps no one, and can actually hurt businesses by leaving them in limbo, losing money, for an even longer time.</li>
<li>Network with colleagues when weird things come up. Ranking drops can be attributed to new Google updates, or bugs, or other factors you haven’t yet noticed but that a trusted peer may have encountered. </li>
<li>Practice humility. 90% of what I know about Local SEO, I’ve learned from people coming to me with problems for which, at some point, I had to discover answers. Over time, the work put in builds up our store of ready knowledge, but we will never know it all, and that’s humbling in a very good way. Community members and clients are our <em>teachers</em>. Let’s be grateful for them, and treat them with respect.</li>
<li>Finally, don’t stress about delivering “the bad news” when you see someone who is asking for help making a marketing mistake. In the long run, your honesty will be the best gift you could possibly have given. </li>
</ol><p>Happy helping!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/13017\">MiriamEllis</a></p><p>It’s never fun being the bearer of bad news.
</p><p>You’re on the phone with an amazing prospect. Let’s say it’s a growing appliance sales and repair provider with 75 locations in the western US. Your agency would absolutely love to onboard this client, and the contact is telling you, with some pride, that they’re already ranking pretty well for about half of their locations.
</p><p>With the right strategy, getting them the rest of the way there should be no problem at all.
</p><p>But then you notice something, and your end of the phone conversation falls a little quiet as you click through from one of their Google My Business listings in Visalia to Streetview and see… not a commercial building, but a house. <em>Uh-oh</em>. In answer to your delicately worded question, you find out that 45 of this brand’s listings have been built around the private homes of their repairmen — an egregious violation of <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a>.
</p><p>“I hate to tell you this…,” you clear your throat, and then you deliver <em>the bad news</em>.
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e148288f3.37415689.jpg" alt="marketingfoundations1.jpg">
</p><p>If you do in-house Local SEO, do it for clients, or even just answer questions in a forum, you’ve surely had the unenviable (yet vital) task of telling someone they’re “doing it wrong,” frequently after they’ve invested considerable resources in creating a marketing structure that threatens to topple due to a crack in its foundation. Sometimes you can patch the crack, but sometimes, whole edifices of bad marketing have to be demolished before safe and secure new buildings can be erected.
</p><p>Here are 5 of the commonest foundational marketing mistakes I’ve encountered over the years as a Local SEO consultant and forum participant. If you run into these in your own work, you’ll be doing someone a big favor by delivering “the bad news” as quickly as possible:
</p><h2>1. Creating GMB listings at ineligible addresses</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e151c61d6.08246492.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We need to rank for these other towns, because we want customers there. Well, no, we don’t really have offices there. We have P.O. Boxes/virtual offices/our employees’ houses.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p><a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a> state:
</p><ul>
<li>Make sure that your page is created at your actual, real-world location</li>
<li>PO Boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable.</li>
<li>Service-area businesses—businesses that serve customers at their locations—should have one page for the central office or location and designate a service area from that point. </li>
</ul><p>All of this adds up to Google saying you shouldn’t create a listing for anything other than a real-world location, but it’s extremely common to see a) spammers simply creating tons of listings for non-existent locations, b) people of good will not knowing the guidelines and doing the same thing, and c) service area businesses (SABs) feeling they have to create fake-location listings because Google won’t rank them for their service cities otherwise.
</p><p>In all three scenarios, the brand puts itself at risk for detection and listing removal. Google can catch them, competitors and consumers can catch them, and marketers can catch them. Once caught, any effort that was put into ranking and building reputation around a fake-location listing is wasted. Better to have devoted resources to risk-free marketing efforts that will add up to something real.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Advise the SAB owner to self-report the problem to Google. I know this sounds risky, but Google My Business forum Top Contributor <a href="https://www.sterlingsky.ca/">Joy Hawkins</a> let me know that <a href="https://www.localsearchforum.com/local-search/44278-forum-etiquette-when-someone-spamming.html">she’s never seen a case in which Google has punished a business that self-reported accidental spam</a>. The owner will likely need to un-verify the spam listings (<a href="https://moz.com/blog/delete-gmb-listing">see how to do that here</a>) and then Google will likely remove the ineligible listings, leaving only the eligible ones intact.
</p><p>What about dyed-in-the-wool spammers who know the guidelines and are violating them regardless, turning local pack results into useless junk? Get to the spam listing in Google Maps, click the “Suggest an edit” link, toggle the toggle to “Yes,” and choose the radio button for spam. Google may or may not act on your suggestion. If not, and the spam is misleading to consumers, I think it’s always a good idea to report it to the <a href="https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-My-Business/ct-p/GMB">Google My Business forum</a> in hopes that a volunteer Top Contributor may escalate an egregious case to a Google staffer.
</p><h2>2. Sharing phone numbers between multiple entities</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e15a666b7.84304260.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I run both my dog walking service and my karate classes out of my house, but I don’t want to have to pay for two different phone lines.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Our restaurant has 3 locations in the city now, but we want all the calls to go through one number for reservation purposes. It’s just easier.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“There are seven doctors at our practice. Front desk handles all calls. We can’t expect the doctors to answer their calls personally.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>There are actually multiple issues at hand on this one. First of all, Google’s guidelines state:
</p><ul>
<li>Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.</li>
<li>Use a local phone number instead of a central, call center helpline number whenever possible.</li>
<li>The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.</li>
</ul><p>This rules out having the phone number of a single location representing multiple locations.
</p><h4>Confusing to Google
</h4><p>Google has also been known in the past to phone businesses for verification purposes. Should a business answer “Jim’s Dog Walking” when a Google rep is calling to verify that the phone number is associated with “Jim’s Karate Lessons,” we’re in trouble. Shared phone numbers have also been suspected in the past of causing accidental merging of Google listings, though I’ve not seen a case of this in a couple of years.
</p><h4>Confusing for businesses
</h4><p>As for the multi-practitioner scenario, the reality is that some business models simply don’t allow for practitioners to answer their own phones. Calls for doctors, dentists, attorneys, etc. are traditionally routed through a front desk. This reality calls into question whether forward-facing listings should be built for these individuals at all. We’ll dive deeper into this topic below, in the section on multi-practitioner listings.
</p><h4>Confusing for the ecosystem
</h4><p>Beyond Google-related concerns, Moz Local’s awesome engineers have taught me some rather amazing things about the problems shared phone numbers can create for citation-building campaigns in the greater ecosystem. Many local business data platforms are highly dependent on unique phone numbers as a signal of entity uniqueness (the “P” in NAP is powerful!). So, for example, if you submit both Jim’s Dog Walking and Jim’s Bookkeeping to Infogroup with the same number, Infogroup may publish both listings, <em>but leave the phone number fields blank</em>! And without a phone number, a local business listing is pretty worthless.
</p><p>It’s because of realities like these that a unique phone number for each entity is a requirement of the Moz Local product, and should be a prerequisite for any citation building campaign.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Let the business owner know that a unique phone number for each business entity, each business location, and each forward-facing practitioner who wants to be listed is a necessary business expense (and, hey, likely tax deductible, too!). Once the investment has been made in the unique numbers, the work ahead involves editing all existing citations to reflect them. The free tool <a href="https://moz.com/local/search" target="_blank">Moz Check Listing</a> can help you instantly locate existing citations for the purpose of creating a spreadsheet that details the bad data, allowing you to start correcting it manually. Or, to save time, the business owner may wish to invest in a paid, automated citation correction product like <a href="https://moz.com/products/local" target="_blank">Moz Local</a>.
</p><p>Pro tip: Apart from removing local business listing stumbling blocks, unique phone numbers have an added bonus in that they enable the benefits of associating KPIs like clicks-to-call to a given entity, and existing numbers can be ported into call tracking numbers for even further analysis of traffic and conversions. You just can’t enjoy these benefits if you lump multiple entities together under a single, shared number.
</p><h2>3. Keyword stuffing GMB listing names</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16362811.10055424.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I have 5 locations in Dallas. How are my customers supposed to find the right one unless I add the neighborhood name to the business name on the listings?”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“We want customers to know we do both acupuncture and massage, so we put both in the listing name.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Well, no, the business name doesn’t actually have a city name in it, but my competitors are adding city names to their GMB listings and they’re outranking me!”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Long story short, it’s a blatant violation of Google’s guidelines to put extraneous keywords in the business name field of a GMB listing. Google states:
</p><ul>
<li>Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers. </li>
<li>Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your listing being suspended. </li>
</ul><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>I consider this a genuine Local SEO toughie. On the one hand, Google’s lack of enforcement of these guidelines, and apparent lack of concern about the whole thing, makes it difficult to adequately alarm business owners about the risk of suspension. I’ve successfully reported keyword stuffing violations to Google and have had them act on my reports within 24 hours… only to have the spammy names reappear hours or days afterwards. If there’s a suspension of some kind going on here, I don’t see it.
</p><p>Simultaneously, Google’s local algo apparently continues to be influenced by exact keyword matches. When a business owner sees competitors outranking him via outlawed practices which Google appears to ignore, the Local SEO may feel slightly idiotic urging guideline-compliance from his patch of shaky ground.
</p><p>But, do it anyway. For two reasons:
</p><ol>
<li>If you’re not teaching business owners about the importance of brand building at this point, you’re not really teaching marketing. Ask the owner, “Are you into building a lasting brand, or are you hoping to get by on tricks?” Smart owners (and their marketers) will see that it’s a more legitimate strategy to build a future based on earning permanent local brand recognition for <em>Lincoln & Herndon</em>, than for <em>Springfield Car Accident Slip and Fall Personal Injury Lawyers Attorneys.</em></li>
<li>I find it interesting that, in all of Google’s guidelines, the word “suspended” is used only a few times, and one of these rare instances relates to spamming the business title field. In other words, Google is using the strongest possible language to warn against this practice, and that makes me quite nervous about tying large chunks of reputation and rankings to a tactic against which Google has forewarned. I remember that companies were doing all kinds of risky things on the eve of the <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change" target="_blank">Panda and Penguin updates</a> and they woke up to a changed webscape in which they were no longer winners. Because of this, I advocate alerting any business owner who is risking his livelihood to chancy shortcuts. Better to build things for real, for the long haul.</li>
</ol><p>Fortunately, it only takes a few seconds to sign into a GMB account and remove extraneous keywords from a business name. If it needs to be done at scale for large multi-location enterprises across the major aggregators, Moz Local can get the job done. Will removing spammy keywords from the GMB listing title cause the business to move down in Google’s local rankings? It’s possible that they will, but at least they’ll be able to go forward building real stuff, with the moral authority to report rule-breaking competitors and keep at it until Google acts.
</p><p>And tell owners not to worry about Google not being able to sort out a downtown location from an uptown one for consumers. Google’s ability to parse user proximity is getting better every day. Mobile-local packs prove this out. If one location is wrongly outranking another, chances are good the business needs to do <a href="https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit">an audit</a> to discover weaknesses that are holding the more appropriate listing back. That’s real strategy - no tricks!
</p><h2>4. Creating a multi-site morass</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16cd5934.12429006.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“So, to cover all 3 or our locations, we have greengrocerysandiego.com, greengrocerymonterey.com and greengrocerymendocino.com… but the problem is, the content on the three sites is kind of all the same. What should we do to make the sites different?”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“So, to cover all of our services, we have jimsappliancerepair.com, jimswashingmachinerepair.com, jimsdryerrepair.com, jimshotwaterheaterrepair.com, jimsrefrigeratorrepair.com. We’re about to buy jimsvacuumrepair.com … but the problem is, there’s not much content on any of these sites. It feels like management is getting out of hand.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Definitely a frequent topic in SEO forums, the practice of relying on exact match domains (EMDs) proliferates because of Google’s historic bias in their favor. The ranking influence of EMDs has been the subject of <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change#2012" target="_blank">a Google update</a>and has lessened over time. I wouldn’t want to try to rank for competitive terms with creditcards.com or insurance.com these days.
</p><p>But if you believe EMDs no longer work in the local-organic world, read this post in which a fellow’s surname/domain name gets mixed up with a distant city name and he ends up <a href="https://moz.com/ugc/case-study-the-interconnectedness-of-local-seo-and-exact-match-domains" target="_blank">ranking in the local packs for it</a>! Chances are, you see weak EMDs ranking all the time for your local searches — more’s the pity. And, no doubt, this ranking boost is the driving force behind local business models continuing to purchase multiple keyword-oriented domains to represent branches of their company or the variety of services they offer. This approach is problematic for 3 chief reasons:
</p><ol>
<li>It’s impractical. The majority of the forum threads I’ve encountered in which small-to-medium local businesses have ended up with two, or five, or ten domains invariably lead to the discovery that the websites are made up of either thin or <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content" target="_blank">duplicate content</a>. Larger enterprises are often guilty of the same. What seemed like a great idea at first, buying up all those EMDs, turns into an unmanageable morass of web properties that no one has the time to keep updated, to write for, or to market. </li>
<li>Specific to the multi-service business, it’s not a smart move to put single-location NAP on multiple websites. In other words, if your construction firm is located at 123 Main Street in Funky Town, but consumers and Google are finding that same physical address associated with fences.com, bathroomremodeling.com, decks.com, and kitchenremodeling.com, you are sowing confusion in the ecosystem. Which is the authoritative business associated with that address? Some business owners further compound problems by assuming they can then build separate sets of local business listings for each of these different service-oriented domains, violating Google’s guidelines, which state:<br><br><em>Do not create more than one page for each location of your business.</em><em><br></em><em><br></em>The whole thing can become a giant mess, instead of the clean, manageable simplicity of a single brand, tied to a single domain, with a single NAP signal.</li>
</ol><ol>
<li>With rare-to-nonexistent exceptions, I consider EMDs to be missed opportunities for brand building. Imagine, if instead of being Whole Foods at WholeFoods.com, the natural foods giant had decided they needed to try to squeeze a ranking boost out of buying 400+ domains to represent the eventual number of locations they now operate. WholeFoodsDallas.com, WholeFoodsMississauga.com, etc? Such an approach would get out of hand very fast. </li>
</ol><p>Even the smallest businesses should take cues from big commerce. Your brand is the magic password you want on every consumer’s lips, associated with every service you offer, in every location you open. As I <a href="https://moz.com/community/q/to-re-domain-or-not-re-domain-that-is-the-question" target="_blank">recently suggested to a Moz community member</a>, be proud to domain your flower shop as <em>rossirovetti.com</em> instead of hoping <em>FloralDelivery24hoursSanFrancisco.com </em>will boost your rankings. It’s authentic, easy to remember, looks trustworthy in the SERPs, and is ripe for memorable brand building.
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>While I can’t speak to the minutiae of every single scenario, I’ve yet to be part of a discussion about multi-sites in the Local SEO community in which I didn’t advise consolidation. Basically, the business should choose a single, proud domain and, in most cases, 301 redirect the old sites to the main one, then work to get as many external links that pointed to the multi-sites to point to the chosen main site. <a href="https://moz.com/blog/2-become-1-merging-two-domains-made-us-an-seo-killing" target="_blank">This oldie but goodie from the Moz blog</a> provides a further technical checklist from a company that saw a 40% increase in traffic after consolidating domains. I’d recommend that any business that is nervous about handling the tech aspects of consolidation in-house should hire a qualified SEO to help them through the process.
</p><h2>5. Creating ill-considered practitioner listings</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e1769b7b1.50050410.jpg">
</p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We have 5 dentists at the practice, but one moved/retired last month and we don’t know what to do with the GMB listing for him.”</em>
</p><p>-or-
</p><p><em>“Dr. Green is outranking the practice in the local results for some reason, and it’s really annoying.”</em>
</p><h3>Why it’s a problem: </h3><p>I’ve saved the most complex for last! Multi-practitioner listings can be a blessing, but they’re so often a bane that my position on creating them has evolved to a point where I only recommend building them in specific cases.
</p><p>When Google first enabled practitioner listings (listings that represent each doctor, lawyer, dentist, or agent within a business) I saw them as a golden opportunity for a given practice to dominate local search results with its presence. However, Google’s subsequent unwillingness to simply remove practitioner duplicates, coupled with the rollout of the <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-possum" target="_blank">Possum update</a> which filters out shared category/similar location listings, coupled with the number of instances I’ve seen in which practitioner listings end up outranking brand listings, has caused me to change my opinion of their benefits. I should also add that the business title field on practitioner listings is a hotbed of Google guideline violations — few business owners have ever read Google’s nitty gritty rules about how to name these types of listings.
</p><p>In a nutshell, practitioner listings gone awry can result in a bunch of wrongly-named listings often clouded by duplicates that Google won’t remove, all competing for the same keywords. Not good!
</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>You’ll have multiple scenarios to address when offering advice about this topic.
</p><p>1.) If the business is brand new, and there is no record of it on the Internet as of yet, then I would only recommend creating practitioner listings if it is necessary to point out an area of specialization. So, for example if a medical practice has 5 MDs, the listing for the practice covers that, with no added listings needed. But, if a medical practice has 5 MDs and an Otolaryngologist, it may be good marketing to give the specialist his own listing, <em>because it has its own GMB category</em> and won’t be competing with the practice for rankings. *However, read on to understand the challenges being undertaken any time a multi-practitioner listing is created.
</p><p>2.) If the multi-practitioner business is not new, chances are very good that there are listings out there for present, past, and even deceased practitioners.
</p><ul>
<li>If a partner is current, be sure you point his listing at a landing page on the practice’s website, instead of at the homepage, see if you can differentiate categories, and do your utmost to optimize the practice’s own listing — the point here is to prevent practitioners from outranking the practice. What do I mean by optimization? Be sure the practice’s GMB listing is fully filled out, you’ve got amazing photos, you’re actively earning and responding to reviews, you’re publishing a Google Post at least once a week, and your citations across the web are consistent. These things should all strengthen the listing for the practice.</li>
<li>If a partner is no longer with the practice, it’s ideal to unverify the listing and ask Google to market it as moved to the practice — not to the practitioner’s new location. Sound goofy? <a href="https://searchengineland.com/cannot-ignore-practitioner-listings-gmb-case-study-253314" target="_blank">Read Joy Hawkins’ smart explanation of this convoluted issue</a>. </li>
<li>If, sadly, a practitioner has passed away, contact Google to show them an obituary so that the listing can be removed.</li>
<li>If a listing represents what is actually a solo practitioner (instead of a partner in a multi-practitioner business model) and his GMB listing is now competing with the listing for his business, you can ask Google to merge the two listings.</li>
</ul><p>3.) If a business wants to create practitioner listings, and they feel up to the task of handling any ranking or situational management concerns, there is one final proviso I’d add. Google’s guidelines state that practitioners should be “directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours” in order to qualify for a GMB listing. I’ve always found this requirement rather vague. Contactable by phone? Contactable in person? Google doesn’t specify. Presumably, a real estate agent in a multi-practitioner agency might be directly contactable, but as my graphic above illustrates, we wouldn’t really expect the same public availability of a surgeon, right? Point being, it may only make marketing sense to create a practitioner listing for someone who needs to be directly available to the consumer public for the business to function. I consider this a genuine grey area in the guidelines, so think it through carefully before acting.
</p><h2>Giving good help</h2><p>It’s genuinely an honor to advise owners and marketers who are strategizing for the success of local businesses. In our own small way, local SEO consultants live in the neighborhood Mister Rogers envisioned in which you could <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328" target="_blank">look for the helpers</a> when confronted with trouble. Given the livelihoods dependent on local commerce, rescuing a company from a foundational marketing mistake is satisfying work for people who like to be “helpers,” and it carries a weight of responsibility.
</p><p>I’ve worked in 3 different SEO forums over the past 10+ years, and I’d like to close with some things I’ve learned about helping:
</p><ol>
<li>Learn to ask the right questions. Small nuances in business models and scenarios can necessitate completely different advice. Don’t be scared to come back with second and third rounds of follow-up queries if someone hasn’t provided sufficient detail for you to advise them well. Read all details thoroughly before replying.</li>
<li>Always, always consult <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en" target="_blank">Google’s guidelines</a>, and link to them in your answers. It’s absolutely amazing how few owners and marketers have ever encountered them. Local SEOs are volunteer liaisons between Google and businesses. That’s just the way things have worked out.</li>
<li>Don’t say you’re sure unless you’re really sure. If a forum or client question necessitates a full audit to surface a useful answer, say so. Giving pat answers to complicated queries helps no one, and can actually hurt businesses by leaving them in limbo, losing money, for an even longer time.</li>
<li>Network with colleagues when weird things come up. Ranking drops can be attributed to new Google updates, or bugs, or other factors you haven’t yet noticed but that a trusted peer may have encountered. </li>
<li>Practice humility. 90% of what I know about Local SEO, I’ve learned from people coming to me with problems for which, at some point, I had to discover answers. Over time, the work put in builds up our store of ready knowledge, but we will never know it all, and that’s humbling in a very good way. Community members and clients are our <em>teachers</em>. Let’s be grateful for them, and treat them with respect.</li>
<li>Finally, don’t stress about delivering “the bad news” when you see someone who is asking for help making a marketing mistake. In the long run, your honesty will be the best gift you could possibly have given. </li>
</ol><p>Happy helping!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7686518.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 11 Dec 2017 00:05:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practicesMiriamEllis2017-12-11T00:05:00ZWhat Do Google's New, Longer Snippets Mean for SEO? - Whiteboard Fridayhttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7655645
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/63\">randfish</a></p><p>Snippets and meta descriptions have brand-new character limits, and it's a big change for Google and SEOs alike. Learn about what's new, when it changed, and what it all means for SEO in this edition of Whiteboard Friday.
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</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/366792656&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true">&#38;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&#38;amp;amp;gt;&#38;amp;amp;lt;/span&#38;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about Google's big change to the snippet length. <br><br>This is the display length of the snippet for any given result in the search results that Google provides. This is on both mobile and desktop. It sort of impacts the meta description, which is how many snippets are written. They're taken from the meta description tag of the web page. Google essentially said just last week, "Hey, we have officially increased the length, the recommended length, and the display length of what we will show in the text snippet of standard organic results."
</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/1-216207.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;">
</p>So I'm illustrating that for you here. I did a search for "net neutrality bill," something that's on the minds of a lot of Americans right now. You can see here that this article from The Hill, which is a recent article — it was two days ago — has a much longer text snippet than what we would normally expect to find. In fact, I went ahead and counted this one and then showed it here.<p><br>So basically, at the old 165-character limit, which is what you would have seen prior to the middle of December on most every search result, occasionally Google would have a longer one for very specific kinds of search results, but more than 90%, according to data from SISTRIX, which put out a great report and I'll link to it here, more than <a href="https://www.sistrix.com/blog/google-permits-longer-snippet-texts/" target="_blank">90% of search snippets were 165 characters or less</a> prior to the middle of November. Then Google added basically a few more lines.
</p><p>So now, on mobile and desktop, instead of an average of two or three lines, we're talking three, four, five, sometimes even six lines of text. So this snippet here is 266 characters that Google is displaying. The next result, from Save the Internet, is 273 characters. Again, this might be because Google sort of realized, "Hey, we almost got all of this in here. Let's just carry it through to the end rather than showing the ellipsis." But you can see that 165 characters would cut off right here. This one actually does a good job of displaying things.
</p><p>So imagine a searcher is querying for something in your field and they're just looking for a basic understanding of what it is. So they've never heard of net neutrality. They're not sure what it is. So they can read here, "Net neutrality is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any . . ." And that's where it would cut off. Or that's where it would have cut off in November.
</p><p>Now, if I got a snippet like that, I need to visit the site. I've got to click through in order to learn more. That doesn't tell me enough to give me the data to go through. Now, Google has tackled this before with things, like a featured snippet, that sit at the top of the search results, that are a more expansive short answer. But in this case, I can get the rest of it because now, as of mid-November, Google has lengthened this. So now I can get, "Any content, applications, or websites you want to use. Net neutrality is the way that the Internet has always worked."
</p><p>Now, you might quibble and say this is not a full, thorough understanding of what net neutrality is, and I agree. But for a lot of searchers, this is good enough. They don't need to click any more. This extension from 165 to 275 or 273, in this case, has really done the trick.
</p><h2>What changed?</h2><p>So this can have a bunch of changes to SEO too. So the change that happened here is that Google updated basically two things. One, they updated the snippet length, and two, they updated their guidelines around it.
</p><p>So Google's had historic guidelines that said, well, you want to keep your meta description tag between about 160 and 180 characters. I think that was the number. They've updated that to where they say there's no official meta description recommended length. But on Twitter, Danny Sullivan said that he would probably not make that greater than 320 characters. In fact, we and other data providers, that collect a lot of search results, didn't find many that extended beyond 300. So I think that's a reasonable thing.
</p><h2>When?</h2><p>When did this happen? It was starting at about mid-November. November 22nd is when SISTRIX's dataset starts to notice the increase, and it was over 50%. Now it's sitting at about 51% of search results that have these longer snippets in at least 1 of the top 10 as of December 2nd.
</p><p>Here's the amazing thing, though — 51% of search results have at least one. Many of those, because they're still pulling old meta descriptions or meta descriptions that SEO has optimized for the 165-character limit, are still very short. So if you're the person in your search results, especially it's holiday time right now, lots of ecommerce action, if you're the person to go update your important pages right now, you might be able to get more real estate in the search results than any of your competitors in the SERPs because they're not updating theirs.
</p><h2>How will this affect SEO?</h2><p>So how is this going to really change SEO? Well, three things:
</p><h3>A. It changes how marketers should write and optimize the meta description.
</h3><p>We're going to be writing a little bit differently because we have more space. We're going to be trying to entice people to click, but we're going to be very conscientious that we want to try and answer a lot of this in the search result itself, because if we can, there's a good chance that Google will rank us higher, even if we're actually sort of sacrificing clicks by helping the searcher get the answer they need in the search result.
</p><h3>B. It may impact click-through rate. </h3><p>We'll be looking at Jumpshot data over the next few months and year ahead. We think that there are two likely ways they could do it. Probably negatively, meaning fewer clicks on less complex queries. But conversely, possible it will get more clicks on some more complex queries, because people are more enticed by the longer description. Fingers crossed, that's kind of what you want to do as a marketer.
</p><h3>C. It may lead to lower click-through rate further down in the search results. </h3><p>If you think about the fact that this is taking up the real estate that was taken up by three results with two, as of a month ago, well, maybe people won't scroll as far down. Maybe the ones that are higher up will in fact draw more of the clicks, and thus being further down on page one will have less value than it used to.
</p><h2>What should SEOs do?</h2><p>What are things that you should do right now? Number one, make a priority list — you should probably already have this — of your most important landing pages by search traffic, the ones that receive the most search traffic on your website, organic search. Then I would go and reoptimize those meta descriptions for the longer limits.
</p><p>Now, you can judge as you will. My advice would be go to the SERPs that are sending you the most traffic, that you're ranking for the most. Go check out the limits. They're probably between about 250 and 300, and you can optimize somewhere in there.
</p><p>The second thing I would do is if you have internal processes or your CMS has rules around how long you can make a meta description tag, you're going to have to update those probably from the old limit of somewhere in the 160 to 180 range to the new 230 to 320 range. It doesn't look like many are smaller than 230 now, at least limit-wise, and it doesn't look like anything is particularly longer than 320. So somewhere in there is where you're going to want to stay.
</p><p>Good luck with your new meta descriptions and with your new snippet optimization. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a>
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/63\">randfish</a></p><p>Snippets and meta descriptions have brand-new character limits, and it's a big change for Google and SEOs alike. Learn about what's new, when it changed, and what it all means for SEO in this edition of Whiteboard Friday.
</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;">
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</p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!
</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/366792656&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true">&#38;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&#38;amp;amp;gt;&#38;amp;amp;lt;/span&#38;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about Google's big change to the snippet length. <br><br>This is the display length of the snippet for any given result in the search results that Google provides. This is on both mobile and desktop. It sort of impacts the meta description, which is how many snippets are written. They're taken from the meta description tag of the web page. Google essentially said just last week, "Hey, we have officially increased the length, the recommended length, and the display length of what we will show in the text snippet of standard organic results."
</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/1-216207.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;">
</p>So I'm illustrating that for you here. I did a search for "net neutrality bill," something that's on the minds of a lot of Americans right now. You can see here that this article from The Hill, which is a recent article — it was two days ago — has a much longer text snippet than what we would normally expect to find. In fact, I went ahead and counted this one and then showed it here.<p><br>So basically, at the old 165-character limit, which is what you would have seen prior to the middle of December on most every search result, occasionally Google would have a longer one for very specific kinds of search results, but more than 90%, according to data from SISTRIX, which put out a great report and I'll link to it here, more than <a href="https://www.sistrix.com/blog/google-permits-longer-snippet-texts/" target="_blank">90% of search snippets were 165 characters or less</a> prior to the middle of November. Then Google added basically a few more lines.
</p><p>So now, on mobile and desktop, instead of an average of two or three lines, we're talking three, four, five, sometimes even six lines of text. So this snippet here is 266 characters that Google is displaying. The next result, from Save the Internet, is 273 characters. Again, this might be because Google sort of realized, "Hey, we almost got all of this in here. Let's just carry it through to the end rather than showing the ellipsis." But you can see that 165 characters would cut off right here. This one actually does a good job of displaying things.
</p><p>So imagine a searcher is querying for something in your field and they're just looking for a basic understanding of what it is. So they've never heard of net neutrality. They're not sure what it is. So they can read here, "Net neutrality is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any . . ." And that's where it would cut off. Or that's where it would have cut off in November.
</p><p>Now, if I got a snippet like that, I need to visit the site. I've got to click through in order to learn more. That doesn't tell me enough to give me the data to go through. Now, Google has tackled this before with things, like a featured snippet, that sit at the top of the search results, that are a more expansive short answer. But in this case, I can get the rest of it because now, as of mid-November, Google has lengthened this. So now I can get, "Any content, applications, or websites you want to use. Net neutrality is the way that the Internet has always worked."
</p><p>Now, you might quibble and say this is not a full, thorough understanding of what net neutrality is, and I agree. But for a lot of searchers, this is good enough. They don't need to click any more. This extension from 165 to 275 or 273, in this case, has really done the trick.
</p><h2>What changed?</h2><p>So this can have a bunch of changes to SEO too. So the change that happened here is that Google updated basically two things. One, they updated the snippet length, and two, they updated their guidelines around it.
</p><p>So Google's had historic guidelines that said, well, you want to keep your meta description tag between about 160 and 180 characters. I think that was the number. They've updated that to where they say there's no official meta description recommended length. But on Twitter, Danny Sullivan said that he would probably not make that greater than 320 characters. In fact, we and other data providers, that collect a lot of search results, didn't find many that extended beyond 300. So I think that's a reasonable thing.
</p><h2>When?</h2><p>When did this happen? It was starting at about mid-November. November 22nd is when SISTRIX's dataset starts to notice the increase, and it was over 50%. Now it's sitting at about 51% of search results that have these longer snippets in at least 1 of the top 10 as of December 2nd.
</p><p>Here's the amazing thing, though — 51% of search results have at least one. Many of those, because they're still pulling old meta descriptions or meta descriptions that SEO has optimized for the 165-character limit, are still very short. So if you're the person in your search results, especially it's holiday time right now, lots of ecommerce action, if you're the person to go update your important pages right now, you might be able to get more real estate in the search results than any of your competitors in the SERPs because they're not updating theirs.
</p><h2>How will this affect SEO?</h2><p>So how is this going to really change SEO? Well, three things:
</p><h3>A. It changes how marketers should write and optimize the meta description.
</h3><p>We're going to be writing a little bit differently because we have more space. We're going to be trying to entice people to click, but we're going to be very conscientious that we want to try and answer a lot of this in the search result itself, because if we can, there's a good chance that Google will rank us higher, even if we're actually sort of sacrificing clicks by helping the searcher get the answer they need in the search result.
</p><h3>B. It may impact click-through rate. </h3><p>We'll be looking at Jumpshot data over the next few months and year ahead. We think that there are two likely ways they could do it. Probably negatively, meaning fewer clicks on less complex queries. But conversely, possible it will get more clicks on some more complex queries, because people are more enticed by the longer description. Fingers crossed, that's kind of what you want to do as a marketer.
</p><h3>C. It may lead to lower click-through rate further down in the search results. </h3><p>If you think about the fact that this is taking up the real estate that was taken up by three results with two, as of a month ago, well, maybe people won't scroll as far down. Maybe the ones that are higher up will in fact draw more of the clicks, and thus being further down on page one will have less value than it used to.
</p><h2>What should SEOs do?</h2><p>What are things that you should do right now? Number one, make a priority list — you should probably already have this — of your most important landing pages by search traffic, the ones that receive the most search traffic on your website, organic search. Then I would go and reoptimize those meta descriptions for the longer limits.
</p><p>Now, you can judge as you will. My advice would be go to the SERPs that are sending you the most traffic, that you're ranking for the most. Go check out the limits. They're probably between about 250 and 300, and you can optimize somewhere in there.
</p><p>The second thing I would do is if you have internal processes or your CMS has rules around how long you can make a meta description tag, you're going to have to update those probably from the old limit of somewhere in the 160 to 180 range to the new 230 to 320 range. It doesn't look like many are smaller than 230 now, at least limit-wise, and it doesn't look like anything is particularly longer than 320. So somewhere in there is where you're going to want to stay.
</p><p>Good luck with your new meta descriptions and with your new snippet optimization. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.
</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a>
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7655645.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 08 Dec 2017 00:04:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/googles-longer-snippetsrandfish2017-12-08T00:04:00ZDon't Be Fooled by Data: 4 Data Analysis Pitfalls &amp; How to Avoid Themhttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7644262
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/726559\">Tom.Capper</a></p><p>Digital marketing is a proudly data-driven field. Yet, as SEOs especially, we often have such incomplete or questionable data to work with, that we end up jumping to the wrong conclusions in our attempts to substantiate our arguments or quantify our issues and opportunities.
</p><p>In this post, I’m going to outline 4 data analysis pitfalls that are endemic in our industry, and how to avoid them.
</p><h2>1. Jumping to conclusions</h2><p>Earlier this year, I conducted a ranking factor study around brand awareness, and I posted this caveat:
</p><p><em></em>
</p><blockquote><em>"...the fact that Domain Authority (or branded search volume, or anything else) is positively correlated with rankings could indicate that any or all of the following is likely:
</em>
<ul><em>
<li>Links cause sites to rank well</li>
<li>Ranking well causes sites to get links</li>
<li>Some third factor (e.g. reputation or age of site) causes sites to get both links and rankings"<br>~ <a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume" target="_blank">Me</a></li></em>
</ul>
</blockquote><p><a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume"></a>
</p><p>However, I want to go into this in a bit more depth and give you a framework for analyzing these yourself, because it still comes up a lot. Take, for example, this <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/link-as-a-ranking-factor/" target="_blank">recent study by Stone Temple</a>, which you may have seen in the Moz Top 10 or Rand’s <a href="https://twitter.com/randfish/status/907995200986869761" target="_blank">tweets</a>, or this <a href="https://webmarketingschool.com/semrush-direct-traffic-ranking-factor-claim/" target="_blank">excellent article</a> discussing SEMRush’s recent direct traffic findings. To be absolutely clear, I’m not criticizing either of the studies, but I do want to draw attention to how we might interpret them.
</p><p>Firstly, we do tend to suffer a little confirmation bias — we’re all too eager to call out the cliché “correlation vs. causation” distinction when we see successful sites that are keyword-stuffed, but all too approving when we see studies doing the same with something we think is or was effective, like links.
</p><p>Secondly, we fail to critically analyze the potential mechanisms. The options aren’t just causation or coincidence.
</p><p>Before you jump to a conclusion based on a correlation, you’re obliged to consider various possibilities:
</p><ul>
<li>Complete coincidence</li>
<li>Reverse causation</li>
<li>Joint causation</li>
<li>Linearity</li>
<li>Broad applicability</li>
</ul><p>If those don’t make any sense, then that’s fair enough — they’re jargon. Let’s go through an example:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e7089deb53.58500794.png">
</p><p>Before I warn you not to eat cheese because you may die in your bedsheets, I’m obliged to check that it isn’t any of the following:
</p><ul>
<li><strong>Complete coincidence -</strong> Is it possible that so many datasets were compared, that some were bound to be similar? Why, that’s exactly what <a href="http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations" target="_blank">Tyler Vigen</a> did! <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Reverse causation -</strong> Is it possible that we have this the wrong way around? For example, perhaps your relatives, in mourning for your bedsheet-related death, eat cheese in large quantities to comfort themselves? This seems pretty unlikely, so let’s give it a pass. <em><strong>No, this is very unlikely.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Joint causation -</strong> Is it possible that some third factor is behind both of these? Maybe increasing affluence makes you healthier (so you don’t die of things like malnutrition), and also causes you to eat more cheese? This seems very plausible. <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Linearity -</strong> Are we comparing two linear trends? A linear trend is a steady rate of growth or decline. Any two statistics which are both roughly linear over time will be very well correlated. In the graph above, both our statistics are trending linearly upwards. If the graph was drawn with different scales, they might look completely unrelated, like <a href="https://imgur.com/muS5w9b" target="_blank">this</a>, but because they both have a steady rate, they’d still be very well correlated. <em><strong>Yes, this looks likely.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Broad applicability -</strong> Is it possible that this relationship only exists in certain niche scenarios, or, at least, not in my niche scenario? Perhaps, for example, cheese does this to some people, and that’s been enough to create this correlation, because there are so few bedsheet-tangling fatalities otherwise? <em><strong>Yes, this seems possible.</strong></em></li>
</ul><p>So we have 4 “<em>Yes</em>” answers and one “<em>No</em>” answer from those 5 checks.
</p><p>If your example doesn’t get 5 “<em>No</em>” answers from those 5 checks, it’s a fail, and you don’t get to say that the study has established either a ranking factor or a fatal side effect of cheese consumption.
</p><p>A similar process should apply to case studies, which are another form of correlation — the correlation between you making a change, and something good (or bad!) happening. For example, ask:
</p><ul>
<li>Have I ruled out other factors (e.g. external demand, seasonality, competitors making mistakes)?</li>
<li>Did I increase traffic by doing the thing I tried to do, or did I accidentally improve some other factor at the same time?</li>
<li>Did this work because of the unique circumstance of the particular client/project?</li>
</ul><p>This is particularly challenging for SEOs, because we rarely have data of this quality, but I’d suggest an additional pair of questions to help you navigate this minefield:
</p><ul>
<li>If I were Google, would I do this?</li>
<li>If I were Google, could I do this?</li>
</ul><p>Direct traffic as a ranking factor passes the “could” test, but only barely — Google could use data from Chrome, Android, or ISPs, but it’d be sketchy. It doesn’t really pass the “would” test, though — it’d be far easier for Google to use branded search traffic, which would answer the same questions you might try to answer by comparing direct traffic levels (e.g. how popular is this website?).
</p><h2>2. Missing the context</h2><p>If I told you that my traffic was up 20% week on week today, what would you say? Congratulations?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70914fd70.02061093.png">
</p><p>What if it was up 20% this time last year?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e709992347.54502962.png">
</p><p>What if I told you it had been up 20% year on year, up until recently?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70a17bd95.25982670.png">
</p><p>It’s funny how a little context can completely change this. This is another problem with case studies and their evil inverted twin, traffic drop analyses.
</p><p>If we really want to understand whether to be surprised at something, positively or negatively, we need to compare it to our expectations, and then figure out what deviation from our expectations is “normal.” If this is starting to sound like statistics, that’s because it is statistics — indeed, I wrote about a statistical approach to measuring change way back in <a href="https://www.distilled.net/resources/statistical-forecasting-for-seo-analytics-and-a-free-tool/" target="_blank">2015</a>.
</p><p>If you want to be lazy, though, a good rule of thumb is to zoom out, and add in those previous years. And if someone shows you data that is suspiciously zoomed in, you might want to take it with a pinch of salt.
</p><h2>3. Trusting our tools</h2><p>Would you make a multi-million dollar business decision based on a number that your competitor could manipulate at will? Well, chances are you do, and the number can be found in Google Analytics. I’ve covered this extensively in <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/THCapper/everything-you-didnt-know-about-google-analytics-measurefest-november-2016" target="_blank">other places</a>, but there are some major problems with most analytics platforms around:
</p><ul>
<li>How easy they are to manipulate externally</li>
<li>How arbitrarily they group hits into sessions</li>
<li>How vulnerable they are to ad blockers</li>
<li>How they perform under sampling, and how obvious they make this</li>
</ul><p>For example, did you know that the Google Analytics API v3 can heavily sample data whilst telling you that the data is unsampled, above a certain amount of traffic (~500,000 within date range)? Neither did I, until we ran into it whilst building Distilled ODN.
</p><p>Similar problems exist with many “Search Analytics” tools. My colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/samnemzer" target="_blank">Sam Nemzer</a> has written a bunch about this — did you know that most rank tracking platforms report <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SamNemzer/are-the-first-things-you-learnt-about-seo-still-true/36?src=clipshare">completely different rankings</a>? Or how about the fact that the keywords grouped by Google (and thus tools like SEMRush and STAT, too) are <a href="https://moz.com/blog/google-grouping-keyword-volumes-what-does-this-mean-for-seo" target="_blank">not equivalent</a>, and don’t necessarily have the volumes quoted?
</p><p>It’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of tools that we use, so that we can at least know when they’re directionally accurate (as in, their insights guide you in the right direction), even if not perfectly accurate. All I can really recommend here is that skilling up in SEO (or any other digital channel) necessarily means understanding the mechanics behind your measurement platforms — which is why all new starts at Distilled end up learning how to do analytics audits.
</p><p>One of the most common solutions to the root problem is combining multiple data sources, but…
</p><h2>4. Combining data sources</h2><p>There are numerous platforms out there that will “defeat (not provided)” by bringing together data from two or more of:
</p><ul>
<li>Analytics</li>
<li>Search Console</li>
<li>AdWords</li>
<li>Rank tracking</li>
</ul><p>The problems here are that, firstly, these platforms do not have equivalent definitions, and secondly, ironically, (not provided) tends to break them.
</p><p>Let’s deal with definitions first, with an example — let’s look at a landing page with a channel:
</p><ul>
<li>In Search Console, these are reported as <em>clicks</em>, and can be vulnerable to heavy, invisible sampling when multiple dimensions (e.g. keyword and page) or filters are combined.</li>
<li>In Google Analytics, these are reported using <em>last non-direct click</em>, meaning that your organic traffic includes a bunch of direct sessions, time-outs that resumed mid-session, etc. That’s without getting into dark traffic, ad blockers, etc.</li>
<li>In AdWords, most reporting uses <em>last AdWords click</em>, and conversions may be defined differently. In addition, keyword volumes are bundled, as referenced above.</li>
<li>Rank tracking is location specific, and inconsistent, as referenced above.</li>
</ul><p>Fine, though — it may not be precise, but you can at least get to some <em>directionally</em> useful data given these limitations. However, about that “(not provided)”...</p><p>Most of your landing pages get traffic from more than one keyword. It’s very likely that some of these keywords convert better than others, particularly if they are branded, meaning that even the most thorough click-through rate model isn’t going to help you. So how do you know which keywords are valuable?
</p><p>The best answer is to generalize from AdWords data for those keywords, but it’s very unlikely that you have analytics data for all those combinations of keyword and landing page. Essentially, the tools that report on this make the very bold assumption that a given page converts identically for all keywords. Some are more transparent about this than others.
</p><p>Again, this isn’t to say that those tools aren’t valuable — they just need to be understood carefully. The only way you could reliably fill in these blanks created by “not provided” would be to spend a ton on paid search to get decent volume, conversion rate, and bounce rate estimates for all your keywords, and even then, you’ve not fixed the inconsistent definitions issues.
</p><h2>Bonus peeve: Average rank</h2><p>I still see this way too often. Three questions:
</p><ol>
<li>Do you care more about losing rankings for ten very low volume queries (10 searches a month or less) than for one high volume query (millions plus)? If the answer isn’t “yes, I absolutely care more about the ten low-volume queries”, then this metric isn’t for you, and you should consider a visibility metric based on click through rate estimates.</li>
<li>When you start ranking at 100 for a keyword you didn’t rank for before, does this make you unhappy? If the answer isn’t “yes, I hate ranking for new keywords,” then this metric isn’t for you — because that will lower your average rank. You could of course treat all non-ranking keywords as position 100, as some tools allow, but is a drop of 2 average rank positions really the best way to express that 1/50 of your landing pages have been de-indexed? Again, use a visibility metric, please.</li>
<li>Do you like comparing your performance with your competitors? If the answer isn’t “no, of course not,” then this metric isn’t for you — your competitors may have more or fewer branded keywords or long-tail rankings, and these will skew the comparison. Again, use a visibility metric.</li>
</ol><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>Hopefully, you’ve found this useful. To summarize the main takeaways:
</p><ul>
<li>Critically analyse correlations & case studies by seeing if you can explain them as coincidences, as reverse causation, as joint causation, through reference to a third mutually relevant factor, or through niche applicability.</li>
<li>Don’t look at changes in traffic without looking at the context — what would you have forecasted for this period, and with what margin of error?</li>
<li>Remember that the tools we use have limitations, and do your research on how that impacts the numbers they show. “<em>How has this number been produced?”</em> is an important component in <em>“What does this number mean?”</em></li>
<li>If you end up combining data from multiple tools, remember to work out the relationship between them — treat this information as directional rather than precise.</li>
</ul><p>Let me know what data analysis fallacies bug you, <a href="https://moz.com/blog/data-analysis-pitfalls#comments">in the comments below</a>.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/726559\">Tom.Capper</a></p><p>Digital marketing is a proudly data-driven field. Yet, as SEOs especially, we often have such incomplete or questionable data to work with, that we end up jumping to the wrong conclusions in our attempts to substantiate our arguments or quantify our issues and opportunities.
</p><p>In this post, I’m going to outline 4 data analysis pitfalls that are endemic in our industry, and how to avoid them.
</p><h2>1. Jumping to conclusions</h2><p>Earlier this year, I conducted a ranking factor study around brand awareness, and I posted this caveat:
</p><p><em></em>
</p><blockquote><em>"...the fact that Domain Authority (or branded search volume, or anything else) is positively correlated with rankings could indicate that any or all of the following is likely:
</em>
<ul><em>
<li>Links cause sites to rank well</li>
<li>Ranking well causes sites to get links</li>
<li>Some third factor (e.g. reputation or age of site) causes sites to get both links and rankings"<br>~ <a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume" target="_blank">Me</a></li></em>
</ul>
</blockquote><p><a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume"></a>
</p><p>However, I want to go into this in a bit more depth and give you a framework for analyzing these yourself, because it still comes up a lot. Take, for example, this <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/link-as-a-ranking-factor/" target="_blank">recent study by Stone Temple</a>, which you may have seen in the Moz Top 10 or Rand’s <a href="https://twitter.com/randfish/status/907995200986869761" target="_blank">tweets</a>, or this <a href="https://webmarketingschool.com/semrush-direct-traffic-ranking-factor-claim/" target="_blank">excellent article</a> discussing SEMRush’s recent direct traffic findings. To be absolutely clear, I’m not criticizing either of the studies, but I do want to draw attention to how we might interpret them.
</p><p>Firstly, we do tend to suffer a little confirmation bias — we’re all too eager to call out the cliché “correlation vs. causation” distinction when we see successful sites that are keyword-stuffed, but all too approving when we see studies doing the same with something we think is or was effective, like links.
</p><p>Secondly, we fail to critically analyze the potential mechanisms. The options aren’t just causation or coincidence.
</p><p>Before you jump to a conclusion based on a correlation, you’re obliged to consider various possibilities:
</p><ul>
<li>Complete coincidence</li>
<li>Reverse causation</li>
<li>Joint causation</li>
<li>Linearity</li>
<li>Broad applicability</li>
</ul><p>If those don’t make any sense, then that’s fair enough — they’re jargon. Let’s go through an example:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e7089deb53.58500794.png">
</p><p>Before I warn you not to eat cheese because you may die in your bedsheets, I’m obliged to check that it isn’t any of the following:
</p><ul>
<li><strong>Complete coincidence -</strong> Is it possible that so many datasets were compared, that some were bound to be similar? Why, that’s exactly what <a href="http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations" target="_blank">Tyler Vigen</a> did! <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Reverse causation -</strong> Is it possible that we have this the wrong way around? For example, perhaps your relatives, in mourning for your bedsheet-related death, eat cheese in large quantities to comfort themselves? This seems pretty unlikely, so let’s give it a pass. <em><strong>No, this is very unlikely.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Joint causation -</strong> Is it possible that some third factor is behind both of these? Maybe increasing affluence makes you healthier (so you don’t die of things like malnutrition), and also causes you to eat more cheese? This seems very plausible. <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Linearity -</strong> Are we comparing two linear trends? A linear trend is a steady rate of growth or decline. Any two statistics which are both roughly linear over time will be very well correlated. In the graph above, both our statistics are trending linearly upwards. If the graph was drawn with different scales, they might look completely unrelated, like <a href="https://imgur.com/muS5w9b" target="_blank">this</a>, but because they both have a steady rate, they’d still be very well correlated. <em><strong>Yes, this looks likely.</strong></em></li>
<li><strong>Broad applicability -</strong> Is it possible that this relationship only exists in certain niche scenarios, or, at least, not in my niche scenario? Perhaps, for example, cheese does this to some people, and that’s been enough to create this correlation, because there are so few bedsheet-tangling fatalities otherwise? <em><strong>Yes, this seems possible.</strong></em></li>
</ul><p>So we have 4 “<em>Yes</em>” answers and one “<em>No</em>” answer from those 5 checks.
</p><p>If your example doesn’t get 5 “<em>No</em>” answers from those 5 checks, it’s a fail, and you don’t get to say that the study has established either a ranking factor or a fatal side effect of cheese consumption.
</p><p>A similar process should apply to case studies, which are another form of correlation — the correlation between you making a change, and something good (or bad!) happening. For example, ask:
</p><ul>
<li>Have I ruled out other factors (e.g. external demand, seasonality, competitors making mistakes)?</li>
<li>Did I increase traffic by doing the thing I tried to do, or did I accidentally improve some other factor at the same time?</li>
<li>Did this work because of the unique circumstance of the particular client/project?</li>
</ul><p>This is particularly challenging for SEOs, because we rarely have data of this quality, but I’d suggest an additional pair of questions to help you navigate this minefield:
</p><ul>
<li>If I were Google, would I do this?</li>
<li>If I were Google, could I do this?</li>
</ul><p>Direct traffic as a ranking factor passes the “could” test, but only barely — Google could use data from Chrome, Android, or ISPs, but it’d be sketchy. It doesn’t really pass the “would” test, though — it’d be far easier for Google to use branded search traffic, which would answer the same questions you might try to answer by comparing direct traffic levels (e.g. how popular is this website?).
</p><h2>2. Missing the context</h2><p>If I told you that my traffic was up 20% week on week today, what would you say? Congratulations?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70914fd70.02061093.png">
</p><p>What if it was up 20% this time last year?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e709992347.54502962.png">
</p><p>What if I told you it had been up 20% year on year, up until recently?
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70a17bd95.25982670.png">
</p><p>It’s funny how a little context can completely change this. This is another problem with case studies and their evil inverted twin, traffic drop analyses.
</p><p>If we really want to understand whether to be surprised at something, positively or negatively, we need to compare it to our expectations, and then figure out what deviation from our expectations is “normal.” If this is starting to sound like statistics, that’s because it is statistics — indeed, I wrote about a statistical approach to measuring change way back in <a href="https://www.distilled.net/resources/statistical-forecasting-for-seo-analytics-and-a-free-tool/" target="_blank">2015</a>.
</p><p>If you want to be lazy, though, a good rule of thumb is to zoom out, and add in those previous years. And if someone shows you data that is suspiciously zoomed in, you might want to take it with a pinch of salt.
</p><h2>3. Trusting our tools</h2><p>Would you make a multi-million dollar business decision based on a number that your competitor could manipulate at will? Well, chances are you do, and the number can be found in Google Analytics. I’ve covered this extensively in <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/THCapper/everything-you-didnt-know-about-google-analytics-measurefest-november-2016" target="_blank">other places</a>, but there are some major problems with most analytics platforms around:
</p><ul>
<li>How easy they are to manipulate externally</li>
<li>How arbitrarily they group hits into sessions</li>
<li>How vulnerable they are to ad blockers</li>
<li>How they perform under sampling, and how obvious they make this</li>
</ul><p>For example, did you know that the Google Analytics API v3 can heavily sample data whilst telling you that the data is unsampled, above a certain amount of traffic (~500,000 within date range)? Neither did I, until we ran into it whilst building Distilled ODN.
</p><p>Similar problems exist with many “Search Analytics” tools. My colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/samnemzer" target="_blank">Sam Nemzer</a> has written a bunch about this — did you know that most rank tracking platforms report <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SamNemzer/are-the-first-things-you-learnt-about-seo-still-true/36?src=clipshare">completely different rankings</a>? Or how about the fact that the keywords grouped by Google (and thus tools like SEMRush and STAT, too) are <a href="https://moz.com/blog/google-grouping-keyword-volumes-what-does-this-mean-for-seo" target="_blank">not equivalent</a>, and don’t necessarily have the volumes quoted?
</p><p>It’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of tools that we use, so that we can at least know when they’re directionally accurate (as in, their insights guide you in the right direction), even if not perfectly accurate. All I can really recommend here is that skilling up in SEO (or any other digital channel) necessarily means understanding the mechanics behind your measurement platforms — which is why all new starts at Distilled end up learning how to do analytics audits.
</p><p>One of the most common solutions to the root problem is combining multiple data sources, but…
</p><h2>4. Combining data sources</h2><p>There are numerous platforms out there that will “defeat (not provided)” by bringing together data from two or more of:
</p><ul>
<li>Analytics</li>
<li>Search Console</li>
<li>AdWords</li>
<li>Rank tracking</li>
</ul><p>The problems here are that, firstly, these platforms do not have equivalent definitions, and secondly, ironically, (not provided) tends to break them.
</p><p>Let’s deal with definitions first, with an example — let’s look at a landing page with a channel:
</p><ul>
<li>In Search Console, these are reported as <em>clicks</em>, and can be vulnerable to heavy, invisible sampling when multiple dimensions (e.g. keyword and page) or filters are combined.</li>
<li>In Google Analytics, these are reported using <em>last non-direct click</em>, meaning that your organic traffic includes a bunch of direct sessions, time-outs that resumed mid-session, etc. That’s without getting into dark traffic, ad blockers, etc.</li>
<li>In AdWords, most reporting uses <em>last AdWords click</em>, and conversions may be defined differently. In addition, keyword volumes are bundled, as referenced above.</li>
<li>Rank tracking is location specific, and inconsistent, as referenced above.</li>
</ul><p>Fine, though — it may not be precise, but you can at least get to some <em>directionally</em> useful data given these limitations. However, about that “(not provided)”...</p><p>Most of your landing pages get traffic from more than one keyword. It’s very likely that some of these keywords convert better than others, particularly if they are branded, meaning that even the most thorough click-through rate model isn’t going to help you. So how do you know which keywords are valuable?
</p><p>The best answer is to generalize from AdWords data for those keywords, but it’s very unlikely that you have analytics data for all those combinations of keyword and landing page. Essentially, the tools that report on this make the very bold assumption that a given page converts identically for all keywords. Some are more transparent about this than others.
</p><p>Again, this isn’t to say that those tools aren’t valuable — they just need to be understood carefully. The only way you could reliably fill in these blanks created by “not provided” would be to spend a ton on paid search to get decent volume, conversion rate, and bounce rate estimates for all your keywords, and even then, you’ve not fixed the inconsistent definitions issues.
</p><h2>Bonus peeve: Average rank</h2><p>I still see this way too often. Three questions:
</p><ol>
<li>Do you care more about losing rankings for ten very low volume queries (10 searches a month or less) than for one high volume query (millions plus)? If the answer isn’t “yes, I absolutely care more about the ten low-volume queries”, then this metric isn’t for you, and you should consider a visibility metric based on click through rate estimates.</li>
<li>When you start ranking at 100 for a keyword you didn’t rank for before, does this make you unhappy? If the answer isn’t “yes, I hate ranking for new keywords,” then this metric isn’t for you — because that will lower your average rank. You could of course treat all non-ranking keywords as position 100, as some tools allow, but is a drop of 2 average rank positions really the best way to express that 1/50 of your landing pages have been de-indexed? Again, use a visibility metric, please.</li>
<li>Do you like comparing your performance with your competitors? If the answer isn’t “no, of course not,” then this metric isn’t for you — your competitors may have more or fewer branded keywords or long-tail rankings, and these will skew the comparison. Again, use a visibility metric.</li>
</ol><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>Hopefully, you’ve found this useful. To summarize the main takeaways:
</p><ul>
<li>Critically analyse correlations & case studies by seeing if you can explain them as coincidences, as reverse causation, as joint causation, through reference to a third mutually relevant factor, or through niche applicability.</li>
<li>Don’t look at changes in traffic without looking at the context — what would you have forecasted for this period, and with what margin of error?</li>
<li>Remember that the tools we use have limitations, and do your research on how that impacts the numbers they show. “<em>How has this number been produced?”</em> is an important component in <em>“What does this number mean?”</em></li>
<li>If you end up combining data from multiple tools, remember to work out the relationship between them — treat this information as directional rather than precise.</li>
</ul><p>Let me know what data analysis fallacies bug you, <a href="https://moz.com/blog/data-analysis-pitfalls#comments">in the comments below</a>.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7644262.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:02:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/data-analysis-pitfallsTom.Capper2017-12-07T00:02:00ZOur Readership: Results of the 2017 Moz Blog Reader Surveyhttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7633112
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/544762\">Trevor-Klein</a></p><p>This blog is for all of you. In a notoriously opaque and confusing industry that's prone to frequent changes, we see immense benefit in helping all of you stay on top of the game. To that end, every couple of years we ask for a report card of sorts, hoping not only to get a sense for how your jobs have changed, but also to get a sense for how we can improve.
</p><p>About a month ago, we asked you all to take a reader survey, and nearly 600 of you generously gave your time. The results, summarized in this post, were immensely helpful, and were a reminder of how lucky we are to have such a thoughtful community of readers.
</p><p>I've offered as much data as I can, and when possible, I've also trended responses against the same questions from our 2015 and 2013 surveys, so you can get a sense for how things have changed. There's a lot here, so buckle up. =)
</p><hr><h2>Who our readers are</h2><p>To put all of this great feedback into context, it helps to know a bit about who the people in our audience actually are. Sure, we can glean a bit of information from our site analytics, and can make some educated guesses, but neither of those can answer the questions we're most curious about. What's your day-to-day work like, and how much SEO does it really involve? Would you consider yourself more of an SEO beginner, or more of an SEO wizard? And, most importantly, what challenges are you facing in your work these days? The answers give us a fuller understanding of where the rest of your feedback comes from.
</p><h3>What is your job title?</h3><p>Readers of the Moz Blog have a multitude of backgrounds, from CEOs of agencies to in-the-weeds SEOs of all skill levels. One of the most common themes we see, though, is a skew toward the more general marketing industry. I know that word clouds have their faults, but it's still a relatively interesting way to gauge how often things appear in a list like this, so here's what we've got this year:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499af0b5b9.47945419.jpg">
</p><p>Of note, similar to our results in 2015, the word "marketing" is the most common result, followed by the word "SEO" and the word "manager."
</p><p>Here's a look at the top 20 terms used in this year's results, along with the percentage of responses containing each term. You'll also see those same percentages from the 2015 and 2013 surveys to give you an idea of what's changed -- the darker the bar, the more recent the survey:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499be931f5.90994273.png">
</p><p>The thing that surprises me the most about this list is how little it's changed in the four-plus years since we first asked the question (a theme you'll see recur in the rest of these results). In fact, the top 20 terms this year are nearly identical to the top 20 terms four years ago, with only a few things sliding up or down a few spots.
</p><h3>What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?</h3><p>We hear a lot about people wearing multiple hats for their companies. One person who took this survey noted that even at a 9,000-person company, they were the only one who worked on SEO, and it was only about 80% of their job. That idea is backed up by this data, which shows an incredibly broad range of responses. More than 10% of respondents barely touch SEO, and not even 14% say they're full-time:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499c57faf0.02677389.png">
</p><p>One interesting thing to note is the sharp decline in the number of people who say that SEO isn't a part of their day-to-day at all. That shift is likely a result of our shift back toward SEO, away from related areas like social media and content marketing. I think we had attracted a significant number of community managers and content specialists who didn't work in SEO, and we're now seeing the pendulum swing the other direction.
</p><h3>On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?</h3><p>The similarity between this year's graph for this question and those from 2015 and 2013 is simply astonishing:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499cbff7e7.86135897.png">
</p><p>There's been a slight drop in folks who say they're at an expert level, and a slight increase in folks who have some background, but are relative beginners. But only slight. The interesting thing is, our blog traffic has increased significantly over these four years, so the newer members of our audience bear a striking resemblance to those of you who've been around for quite some time. In a sense, that's reassuring -- it paints a clear picture for us as we continue refining our content.
</p><h3>Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?</h3><p>Here's another window into just how little our audience has changed in the last couple of years:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d2a5c08.69347322.png">
</p><p>A slight majority of our readers still work in-house for their own companies, and about a third still work on SEO for their company's clients.
</p><p>Interestingly, though, respondents who work for clients deal with many of the same issues as those who work in-house -- especially in trying to convey the value of their work in SEO. They're just trying to send that message to external clients instead of internal stakeholders. More details on that come from our next question:
</p><h3>What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?</h3><p>I'm consistently amazed by the time and thought that so many of you put into answering this question, and rest assured, your feedback will be presented to several teams around Moz, both on the marketing and the product sides. For this question, I organized each and every response into recurring themes, tallying each time those themes were mentioned. Here are all the themes that were mentioned 10 or more times:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Challenge
</th>
<th># of mentions
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand the value of SEO
</td>
<td>59
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The industry and tactics are constantly changing; algo updates
</td>
<td>45
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Time constraints
</td>
<td>44
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Link building
</td>
<td>35
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand how SEO works
</td>
<td>29
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Content (strategy / creation / marketing)
</td>
<td>25
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Resource constraints
</td>
<td>23
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to prove ROI
</td>
<td>18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Budget constraints
</td>
<td>17
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's a difficult industry in which to learn tools and techniques
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>I regularly need to educate my colleagues / employees
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to prioritize my work
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>My clients either don't have or won't offer sufficient budget / effort
</td>
<td>15
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Effective reporting
</td>
<td>15
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bureaucracy, red tape, other company problems
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to compete with other companies
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>I'm required to wear multiple hats
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>More than anything else, it's patently obvious that one of the greatest difficulties faced by any SEO is explaining it to other people in a way that demonstrates its value while setting appropriate expectations for results. Whether it's your clients, your boss, or your peers that you're trying to convince, it isn't an easy case to make, especially when it's so difficult to show what kind of return a company can see from an investment in SEO.
</p><p>We also saw tons of frustrated responses about how the industry is constantly changing, and it takes too much of your already-constrained time just to stay on top of those changes.
</p><p>In terms of tactics, link building easily tops the list of challenges. That makes sense, as it's the piece of SEO that relies most heavily on the cooperation of other human beings (and humans are often tricky beings to figure out). =)
</p><p>Content marketing -- both the creation/copywriting side as well as the strategy side -- is still a challenge for many folks in the industry, though fewer people mentioned it this year as mentioned it in 2015, so I think we're all starting to get used to how those skills overlap with the more traditional aspects of SEO.
</p><hr><h2>How our readers read</h2><p>With all that context in mind, we started to dig into your preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.</p><h3>How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is the one set of responses that caused a bit of concern. We've seen a steady decrease in the number of people who say they read every day, a slight decrease in the number of people who say they read multiple times each week, and a dramatic increase in the number of people who say they read once a week.
</p><p>The 2015 decrease came after an expansion in the scope of subjects we covered on the blog -- as we branched away from just SEO, we published more posts about social media, email, and other aspects of digital marketing. We knew that not all of those subjects were relevant for everyone, so we expected a dip in frequency of readership.
</p><p>This year, though, we've attempted to refocus on SEO, and might have expected a bit of a rebound. That didn't happen:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d8b7175.90795708.png">
</p><p>There are two other factors at play, here. For one thing, we no longer publish a post every single weekday. After our <a href="https://moz.com/blog/publishing-volume-experiment" target="_blank">publishing volume experiment</a> in 2015, we realized it was safe (even beneficial) to emphasize quality over quantity, so if we don't feel like a post turned out the way we hoped, we don't publish it until we've had a chance to improve it. That means we're down to about four posts per week. We've also made a concerted effort to publish more posts about local SEO, as that's relevant to our software and an increasingly important part of the work of folks in our industry.<br>
</p><p>It could also be a question of time -- we've already covered how little time everyone in our industry has, and with that problem continuing, there may just be less time to read blog posts.
</p><p>If anyone has any additional insight into why they read less often than they once did, please let us know in the comments below!
</p><h3>On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?</h3><p>We were surprised by the responses to this answer in 2013, and they've only gotten more extreme:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499dde8812.84201607.png">
</p><p>Nearly everyone prefers to read blog posts on a full computer. Only about 15% of folks add their phones into the equation, and the number of people in all the other buckets is extremely small. In 2013, our blog didn't have a responsive design, and was quite difficult to read on mobile devices. We thought that might have had something to do with people's responses -- maybe they were just <em>used to</em> reading our blog on larger screens. The trend in 2015 and this year, though, proves that's not the case. People just prefer reading posts on their computers, plain and simple.
</p><h3>Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?</h3><p>This was a new question for this year. We have our own favorite sites, of course, but we had no idea how the majority of folks would respond to this question. As it turns out, there was quite a broad range of responses listing sites that take very different approaches:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Site
</th>
<th># responses
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Land
</td>
<td>184
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Journal
</td>
<td>89
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Roundtable
</td>
<td>74
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SEMrush
</td>
<td>51
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ahrefs
</td>
<td>50
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Watch
</td>
<td>41
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Quick Sprout / Neil Patel
</td>
<td>35
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>HubSpot
</td>
<td>33
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Backlinko
</td>
<td>31
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Google Blogs
</td>
<td>29
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The SEM Post
</td>
<td>21
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kissmetrics
</td>
<td>17
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yoast
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Distilled
</td>
<td>13
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SEO by the Sea
</td>
<td>13
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>I suppose it's no surprise that the most prolific sites sit at the top. They've always got something new, even if the stories don't often go into much depth. We've tended to steer our own posts toward longer-form, in-depth pieces, and I think it's safe to say (based on these responses and some to questions below) that it'd be beneficial for us to include some shorter stories, too. In other words, depth shouldn't necessarily be a requisite for a post to be published on the Moz Blog. We may start experimenting with a more "short and sweet" approach to some posts.
</p><hr><h2>What our readers think of the blog</h2><p>Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for you to consume, and more.</p><h3>What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?</h3><p>Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results here, as SEO is a broad enough industry (and we've got a broad enough audience) that there's simply no way we're going to hit the sweet spot for everyone with every post. But those numbers toward the bottom of the chart are low enough that I feel confident we're doing pretty well in terms of topic relevance.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499e498bd5.48952303.png">
</p><h3>Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?</h3><p>Responses to this question have made me smile every time I see them. This is clearly one thing we're getting about as right as we could expect to. We're even seeing a slight balancing of the "too basic" and "too advanced" columns over time, which is great:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499eb82551.03424441.png">
</p><p>We also asked the people who told us that posts were "too basic" or "too advanced" <em>to what extent</em> they felt that way, using a scale from 1-5 (1 being "just a little bit too basic/advanced" and 5 being "way too basic/advanced." The responses tell us that the people who feel posts are too advanced feel <em>more strongly </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">about that opinion than the people who feel posts are too basic:</span>
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f1f77b7.17557852.png">
</p><p>This makes some sense, I think. If you're just starting out in SEO, which many of our readers are, some of the posts on this blog are likely to go straight over your head. That could be frustrating. If you're an SEO expert, though, you probably aren't <em>frustrated</em> by posts you see as too basic for you -- you just skip past them and move on with your day.
</p><p>This does make me think, though, that we might benefit from offering a dedicated section of the site for folks who are just starting out -- more than just the Beginner's Guide. That's actually something that was specifically requested by one respondent this year.
</p><h3>In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>While it definitely seems like we're doing pretty well in this regard, I'd also say we've got some room to tighten things up a bit, especially in light of the lack of time so many of you mentioned:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f9195e1.22264838.png">
</p><p>There were quite a few comments specifically asking for "short and sweet" posts from time to time -- offering up useful tips or news in a format that didn't expound on details because it didn't have to. I think sprinkling some of those types of posts in with the longer-form posts we have so often would be beneficial.
</p><h3>Do you ever comment on Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>This was another new question this year. Despite so many sites are removing comment sections from their blogs, we've always believed in their value. Sometimes the discussions we see in comments end up being the most helpful part of the posts, and we value our community too much to keep that from happening. So, we were happy to see a full quarter of respondents have participated in comments:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499feae794.57325603.png">
</p><p>We also asked for a bit of info about <em>why</em> you either do or don't comment on posts. The top reasons why you do were pretty predictable -- to ask a clarifying question related to the post, or to offer up your own perspective on the topic at hand. The #3 reason was interesting -- 18 people mentioned that they like to comment in order to thank the author for their hard work. This is a great sentiment, and as someone who's published several posts on this blog, I can say for a fact that it <em>does </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">feel pretty great. At the same time, those comments are really only written for one person -- the author -- and are a bit problematic from our perspective, because they add noise around the more substantial conversations, which are what we like to see most.</span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I think the solution is going to lie in a new UI element that allows readers to note their appreciation to the authors without leaving one of the oft-maligned "Great post!" comments. There's got to be a happy medium there, and I think it's worth our finding it.</span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">The reasons people gave for <em>not</em><span class="redactor-invisible-space"> commenting were even more interesting. A bunch of people mentioned the need to log in (sorry, folks -- if we didn't require that, we'd spend half our day removing spam!). The most common response, though, involved a lack of confidence. Whether it was worded along the lines of "I'm an introvert" or along the lines of "I just don't have a lot of expertise," there were quite a few people who worried about how their comments would be received.</span></span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I want to take this chance to encourage those of you who feel that way to take the step, and ask questions about points you find confusing. At the very least, I can guarantee you aren't the only ones, and others like you will appreciate your initiative. One of the best ways to develop your expertise is to get comfortable asking questions. We all work in a really confusing industry, and the Moz Blog is all about providing a place to help each other out.</span></span>
</p><h3>What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?</h3><p>As usual, the responses to this question were chock full of great suggestions, and again, we <em>so</em> appreciate the amount of time you all spent providing really thoughtful feedback.
</p><p>One pattern I saw was requests for more empirical data -- hard evidence that things should be done a certain way, whether through case studies or other formats. Another pattern was requests for step-by-step walkthroughs. That makes a lot of sense for an industry of folks who are strapped for time: Make things as clear-cut as possible, and where we can, offer a linear path you can walk down instead of asking you to holistically understand the subject matter, then figure that out on your own. (That's actually something we're hoping to do with our entire Learning Center: Make it easier to figure out where to start, and where to continue after that, instead of putting everything into buckets and asking you all to figure it out.)
</p><p>Whiteboard Friday remains a perennial favorite, and we were surprised to see more requests for <em>more</em><span class="redactor-invisible-space"> posts about our own tools than we had requests for <em>fewer </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">posts about our own tools. (We've been wary of that in the past, as we wanted to make sure we never crossed from "helpful" into "salesy," something we'll still focus on even if we do add another tool-based post here and there.)</span></span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">We expected a bit of feedback about the format of the emails -- we're absolutely working on that! -- but didn't expect to see so many folks requesting that we bring back YouMoz. That's something that's been on the backs of our minds, and while it may not take the same form it did before, we do plan on finding new ways to encourage the community to contribute content, and hope to have something up and running early in 2018.</span></span>
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Request
</th>
<th>#responses
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>More case studies
</td>
<td>26
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More Whiteboard Friday (or other videos)
</td>
<td>25
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More long-form step-by-step training/guides
</td>
<td>18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Clearer steps to follow in posts; how-tos
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bring back UGC / YouMoz
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More from Rand
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Improve formatting of the emails
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Higher-level, less-technical posts
</td>
<td>8
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More authors
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More news (algorithm updates, e.g.)
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shorter posts, "quick wins"
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Quizzes, polls, or other engagement opportunities
</td>
<td>6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Broader range of topics (engagement, CRO, etc.)
</td>
<td>6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More about Moz tools
</td>
<td>5
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More data-driven, less opinion-based
</td>
<td>5
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><hr><h2>What our readers want to see</h2><p>This section is a bit more future-facing, where some of what we asked before had to do with how things have been in the past.</p><h3>Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?</h3><p>There were very, very few surprises in this list. Lots of interest in on-page SEO and link building, as well as other core tactical areas of SEO. Content, branding, and social media all took dips -- that makes sense, given the fact that we don't usually post about those things anymore, and we've no doubt lost some audience members who were more interested in them as a result. Interestingly, mobile took a sizable dip, too. I'd be really curious to know what people think about why that is. My best guess is that with the mobile-first indexing from Google and with responsive designs having become so commonplace, there isn't as much of a need as there once was to think of mobile much <em>differently</em> than there was a couple of years ago. Also of note: When we did this survey in 2015, Google had recently rolled out its "<a href="https://moz.com/blog/9-things-about-googles-mobile-friendly-update" target="_blank">Mobile-Friendly Update</a>," not-so-affectionately referred to by many in the industry as Mobilegeddon. So... it was on our minds. =)
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a05b78f9.08617247.png">
</p><h3>Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is a great echo and validation of what we took away from the more general question about what you'd like to see different about the Blog: More tactical posts and step-by-step walkthroughs. Posts that cut to the chase and offer a clear direction forward, as opposed to some of the types at the bottom of this list, which offer more opinions and cerebral explorations:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a0bf1ed5.97491501.png">
</p><hr><h2>What happens next?</h2><p>Now we go to work. =)
</p><p>We'll spend some time fully digesting this info, and coming up with new goals for 2018 aimed at making improvements inspired by your feedback. We'll keep you all apprised as we start moving forward.
</p><p>If you have any additional insight that strikes you in taking a look at these results, please do share it in the comments below -- we'd love to have those discussions.
</p><p>For now, we've got some initial takeaways that we're already planning to take action on.
</p><h3>Primary takeaways</h3><p>There are some relatively obvious things we can take away from these results that we're already working on:</p><ul><li>People in all businesses are finding it quite difficult to communicate the value of SEO to their clients, bosses, and colleagues. That's something we can help with, and we'll be developing materials in the near future to try and alleviate some of that particular frustration.</li><li>There's a real desire for more succinct, actionable, step-by-step walkthroughs on the Blog. We can pretty easily explore formats for posts that are off our "beaten path," and will attempt to make things easier to consume through improvements to both the content itself and its delivery. I think there's some room for more "short and sweet" mixed in with our longer norm.</li><li>The bulk of our audience does more than just SEO, despite a full 25% of them having it in their job titles, and the challenges you mentioned include a bunch of areas that are <em>related to</em>, but outside the traditional world of SEO. Since you all are clearly working on those sorts of things, we should work to highlight and facilitate the relationship between the SEO work and the non-SEO marketing work you do.</li><li>In looking through some of the other sites you all visit for information on SEO, and knowing the kinds of posts they typically publish, it's clear we've got an opportunity to publish more news. We've always dreamed of being more of a one-stop shop for SEO content, and that's good validation that we may want to head down that path.</li></ul><p>Again, thank you all <em>so much</em> for the time and effort you spent filling out this survey. Hopefully you'll notice some changes in the near (and not-so-near) future that make it clear we're really listening.</p><p>If you've got anything to add to these results -- insights, further explanations, questions for clarification, rebuttals of points, etc. -- please leave them in the comments below. We're looking forward to continuing the conversation. =)</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/544762\">Trevor-Klein</a></p><p>This blog is for all of you. In a notoriously opaque and confusing industry that's prone to frequent changes, we see immense benefit in helping all of you stay on top of the game. To that end, every couple of years we ask for a report card of sorts, hoping not only to get a sense for how your jobs have changed, but also to get a sense for how we can improve.
</p><p>About a month ago, we asked you all to take a reader survey, and nearly 600 of you generously gave your time. The results, summarized in this post, were immensely helpful, and were a reminder of how lucky we are to have such a thoughtful community of readers.
</p><p>I've offered as much data as I can, and when possible, I've also trended responses against the same questions from our 2015 and 2013 surveys, so you can get a sense for how things have changed. There's a lot here, so buckle up. =)
</p><hr><h2>Who our readers are</h2><p>To put all of this great feedback into context, it helps to know a bit about who the people in our audience actually are. Sure, we can glean a bit of information from our site analytics, and can make some educated guesses, but neither of those can answer the questions we're most curious about. What's your day-to-day work like, and how much SEO does it really involve? Would you consider yourself more of an SEO beginner, or more of an SEO wizard? And, most importantly, what challenges are you facing in your work these days? The answers give us a fuller understanding of where the rest of your feedback comes from.
</p><h3>What is your job title?</h3><p>Readers of the Moz Blog have a multitude of backgrounds, from CEOs of agencies to in-the-weeds SEOs of all skill levels. One of the most common themes we see, though, is a skew toward the more general marketing industry. I know that word clouds have their faults, but it's still a relatively interesting way to gauge how often things appear in a list like this, so here's what we've got this year:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499af0b5b9.47945419.jpg">
</p><p>Of note, similar to our results in 2015, the word "marketing" is the most common result, followed by the word "SEO" and the word "manager."
</p><p>Here's a look at the top 20 terms used in this year's results, along with the percentage of responses containing each term. You'll also see those same percentages from the 2015 and 2013 surveys to give you an idea of what's changed -- the darker the bar, the more recent the survey:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499be931f5.90994273.png">
</p><p>The thing that surprises me the most about this list is how little it's changed in the four-plus years since we first asked the question (a theme you'll see recur in the rest of these results). In fact, the top 20 terms this year are nearly identical to the top 20 terms four years ago, with only a few things sliding up or down a few spots.
</p><h3>What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?</h3><p>We hear a lot about people wearing multiple hats for their companies. One person who took this survey noted that even at a 9,000-person company, they were the only one who worked on SEO, and it was only about 80% of their job. That idea is backed up by this data, which shows an incredibly broad range of responses. More than 10% of respondents barely touch SEO, and not even 14% say they're full-time:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499c57faf0.02677389.png">
</p><p>One interesting thing to note is the sharp decline in the number of people who say that SEO isn't a part of their day-to-day at all. That shift is likely a result of our shift back toward SEO, away from related areas like social media and content marketing. I think we had attracted a significant number of community managers and content specialists who didn't work in SEO, and we're now seeing the pendulum swing the other direction.
</p><h3>On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?</h3><p>The similarity between this year's graph for this question and those from 2015 and 2013 is simply astonishing:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499cbff7e7.86135897.png">
</p><p>There's been a slight drop in folks who say they're at an expert level, and a slight increase in folks who have some background, but are relative beginners. But only slight. The interesting thing is, our blog traffic has increased significantly over these four years, so the newer members of our audience bear a striking resemblance to those of you who've been around for quite some time. In a sense, that's reassuring -- it paints a clear picture for us as we continue refining our content.
</p><h3>Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?</h3><p>Here's another window into just how little our audience has changed in the last couple of years:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d2a5c08.69347322.png">
</p><p>A slight majority of our readers still work in-house for their own companies, and about a third still work on SEO for their company's clients.
</p><p>Interestingly, though, respondents who work for clients deal with many of the same issues as those who work in-house -- especially in trying to convey the value of their work in SEO. They're just trying to send that message to external clients instead of internal stakeholders. More details on that come from our next question:
</p><h3>What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?</h3><p>I'm consistently amazed by the time and thought that so many of you put into answering this question, and rest assured, your feedback will be presented to several teams around Moz, both on the marketing and the product sides. For this question, I organized each and every response into recurring themes, tallying each time those themes were mentioned. Here are all the themes that were mentioned 10 or more times:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Challenge
</th>
<th># of mentions
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand the value of SEO
</td>
<td>59
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The industry and tactics are constantly changing; algo updates
</td>
<td>45
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Time constraints
</td>
<td>44
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Link building
</td>
<td>35
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand how SEO works
</td>
<td>29
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Content (strategy / creation / marketing)
</td>
<td>25
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Resource constraints
</td>
<td>23
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to prove ROI
</td>
<td>18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Budget constraints
</td>
<td>17
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's a difficult industry in which to learn tools and techniques
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>I regularly need to educate my colleagues / employees
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to prioritize my work
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>My clients either don't have or won't offer sufficient budget / effort
</td>
<td>15
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Effective reporting
</td>
<td>15
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bureaucracy, red tape, other company problems
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It's difficult to compete with other companies
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>I'm required to wear multiple hats
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>More than anything else, it's patently obvious that one of the greatest difficulties faced by any SEO is explaining it to other people in a way that demonstrates its value while setting appropriate expectations for results. Whether it's your clients, your boss, or your peers that you're trying to convince, it isn't an easy case to make, especially when it's so difficult to show what kind of return a company can see from an investment in SEO.
</p><p>We also saw tons of frustrated responses about how the industry is constantly changing, and it takes too much of your already-constrained time just to stay on top of those changes.
</p><p>In terms of tactics, link building easily tops the list of challenges. That makes sense, as it's the piece of SEO that relies most heavily on the cooperation of other human beings (and humans are often tricky beings to figure out). =)
</p><p>Content marketing -- both the creation/copywriting side as well as the strategy side -- is still a challenge for many folks in the industry, though fewer people mentioned it this year as mentioned it in 2015, so I think we're all starting to get used to how those skills overlap with the more traditional aspects of SEO.
</p><hr><h2>How our readers read</h2><p>With all that context in mind, we started to dig into your preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.</p><h3>How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is the one set of responses that caused a bit of concern. We've seen a steady decrease in the number of people who say they read every day, a slight decrease in the number of people who say they read multiple times each week, and a dramatic increase in the number of people who say they read once a week.
</p><p>The 2015 decrease came after an expansion in the scope of subjects we covered on the blog -- as we branched away from just SEO, we published more posts about social media, email, and other aspects of digital marketing. We knew that not all of those subjects were relevant for everyone, so we expected a dip in frequency of readership.
</p><p>This year, though, we've attempted to refocus on SEO, and might have expected a bit of a rebound. That didn't happen:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d8b7175.90795708.png">
</p><p>There are two other factors at play, here. For one thing, we no longer publish a post every single weekday. After our <a href="https://moz.com/blog/publishing-volume-experiment" target="_blank">publishing volume experiment</a> in 2015, we realized it was safe (even beneficial) to emphasize quality over quantity, so if we don't feel like a post turned out the way we hoped, we don't publish it until we've had a chance to improve it. That means we're down to about four posts per week. We've also made a concerted effort to publish more posts about local SEO, as that's relevant to our software and an increasingly important part of the work of folks in our industry.<br>
</p><p>It could also be a question of time -- we've already covered how little time everyone in our industry has, and with that problem continuing, there may just be less time to read blog posts.
</p><p>If anyone has any additional insight into why they read less often than they once did, please let us know in the comments below!
</p><h3>On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?</h3><p>We were surprised by the responses to this answer in 2013, and they've only gotten more extreme:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499dde8812.84201607.png">
</p><p>Nearly everyone prefers to read blog posts on a full computer. Only about 15% of folks add their phones into the equation, and the number of people in all the other buckets is extremely small. In 2013, our blog didn't have a responsive design, and was quite difficult to read on mobile devices. We thought that might have had something to do with people's responses -- maybe they were just <em>used to</em> reading our blog on larger screens. The trend in 2015 and this year, though, proves that's not the case. People just prefer reading posts on their computers, plain and simple.
</p><h3>Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?</h3><p>This was a new question for this year. We have our own favorite sites, of course, but we had no idea how the majority of folks would respond to this question. As it turns out, there was quite a broad range of responses listing sites that take very different approaches:
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Site
</th>
<th># responses
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Land
</td>
<td>184
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Journal
</td>
<td>89
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Roundtable
</td>
<td>74
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SEMrush
</td>
<td>51
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Ahrefs
</td>
<td>50
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Search Engine Watch
</td>
<td>41
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Quick Sprout / Neil Patel
</td>
<td>35
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>HubSpot
</td>
<td>33
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Backlinko
</td>
<td>31
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Google Blogs
</td>
<td>29
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The SEM Post
</td>
<td>21
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Kissmetrics
</td>
<td>17
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Yoast
</td>
<td>16
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Distilled
</td>
<td>13
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SEO by the Sea
</td>
<td>13
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><p>I suppose it's no surprise that the most prolific sites sit at the top. They've always got something new, even if the stories don't often go into much depth. We've tended to steer our own posts toward longer-form, in-depth pieces, and I think it's safe to say (based on these responses and some to questions below) that it'd be beneficial for us to include some shorter stories, too. In other words, depth shouldn't necessarily be a requisite for a post to be published on the Moz Blog. We may start experimenting with a more "short and sweet" approach to some posts.
</p><hr><h2>What our readers think of the blog</h2><p>Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for you to consume, and more.</p><h3>What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?</h3><p>Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results here, as SEO is a broad enough industry (and we've got a broad enough audience) that there's simply no way we're going to hit the sweet spot for everyone with every post. But those numbers toward the bottom of the chart are low enough that I feel confident we're doing pretty well in terms of topic relevance.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499e498bd5.48952303.png">
</p><h3>Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?</h3><p>Responses to this question have made me smile every time I see them. This is clearly one thing we're getting about as right as we could expect to. We're even seeing a slight balancing of the "too basic" and "too advanced" columns over time, which is great:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499eb82551.03424441.png">
</p><p>We also asked the people who told us that posts were "too basic" or "too advanced" <em>to what extent</em> they felt that way, using a scale from 1-5 (1 being "just a little bit too basic/advanced" and 5 being "way too basic/advanced." The responses tell us that the people who feel posts are too advanced feel <em>more strongly </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">about that opinion than the people who feel posts are too basic:</span>
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f1f77b7.17557852.png">
</p><p>This makes some sense, I think. If you're just starting out in SEO, which many of our readers are, some of the posts on this blog are likely to go straight over your head. That could be frustrating. If you're an SEO expert, though, you probably aren't <em>frustrated</em> by posts you see as too basic for you -- you just skip past them and move on with your day.
</p><p>This does make me think, though, that we might benefit from offering a dedicated section of the site for folks who are just starting out -- more than just the Beginner's Guide. That's actually something that was specifically requested by one respondent this year.
</p><h3>In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>While it definitely seems like we're doing pretty well in this regard, I'd also say we've got some room to tighten things up a bit, especially in light of the lack of time so many of you mentioned:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f9195e1.22264838.png">
</p><p>There were quite a few comments specifically asking for "short and sweet" posts from time to time -- offering up useful tips or news in a format that didn't expound on details because it didn't have to. I think sprinkling some of those types of posts in with the longer-form posts we have so often would be beneficial.
</p><h3>Do you ever comment on Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>This was another new question this year. Despite so many sites are removing comment sections from their blogs, we've always believed in their value. Sometimes the discussions we see in comments end up being the most helpful part of the posts, and we value our community too much to keep that from happening. So, we were happy to see a full quarter of respondents have participated in comments:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499feae794.57325603.png">
</p><p>We also asked for a bit of info about <em>why</em> you either do or don't comment on posts. The top reasons why you do were pretty predictable -- to ask a clarifying question related to the post, or to offer up your own perspective on the topic at hand. The #3 reason was interesting -- 18 people mentioned that they like to comment in order to thank the author for their hard work. This is a great sentiment, and as someone who's published several posts on this blog, I can say for a fact that it <em>does </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">feel pretty great. At the same time, those comments are really only written for one person -- the author -- and are a bit problematic from our perspective, because they add noise around the more substantial conversations, which are what we like to see most.</span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I think the solution is going to lie in a new UI element that allows readers to note their appreciation to the authors without leaving one of the oft-maligned "Great post!" comments. There's got to be a happy medium there, and I think it's worth our finding it.</span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">The reasons people gave for <em>not</em><span class="redactor-invisible-space"> commenting were even more interesting. A bunch of people mentioned the need to log in (sorry, folks -- if we didn't require that, we'd spend half our day removing spam!). The most common response, though, involved a lack of confidence. Whether it was worded along the lines of "I'm an introvert" or along the lines of "I just don't have a lot of expertise," there were quite a few people who worried about how their comments would be received.</span></span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I want to take this chance to encourage those of you who feel that way to take the step, and ask questions about points you find confusing. At the very least, I can guarantee you aren't the only ones, and others like you will appreciate your initiative. One of the best ways to develop your expertise is to get comfortable asking questions. We all work in a really confusing industry, and the Moz Blog is all about providing a place to help each other out.</span></span>
</p><h3>What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?</h3><p>As usual, the responses to this question were chock full of great suggestions, and again, we <em>so</em> appreciate the amount of time you all spent providing really thoughtful feedback.
</p><p>One pattern I saw was requests for more empirical data -- hard evidence that things should be done a certain way, whether through case studies or other formats. Another pattern was requests for step-by-step walkthroughs. That makes a lot of sense for an industry of folks who are strapped for time: Make things as clear-cut as possible, and where we can, offer a linear path you can walk down instead of asking you to holistically understand the subject matter, then figure that out on your own. (That's actually something we're hoping to do with our entire Learning Center: Make it easier to figure out where to start, and where to continue after that, instead of putting everything into buckets and asking you all to figure it out.)
</p><p>Whiteboard Friday remains a perennial favorite, and we were surprised to see more requests for <em>more</em><span class="redactor-invisible-space"> posts about our own tools than we had requests for <em>fewer </em><span class="redactor-invisible-space">posts about our own tools. (We've been wary of that in the past, as we wanted to make sure we never crossed from "helpful" into "salesy," something we'll still focus on even if we do add another tool-based post here and there.)</span></span>
</p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">We expected a bit of feedback about the format of the emails -- we're absolutely working on that! -- but didn't expect to see so many folks requesting that we bring back YouMoz. That's something that's been on the backs of our minds, and while it may not take the same form it did before, we do plan on finding new ways to encourage the community to contribute content, and hope to have something up and running early in 2018.</span></span>
</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Request
</th>
<th>#responses
</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>More case studies
</td>
<td>26
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More Whiteboard Friday (or other videos)
</td>
<td>25
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More long-form step-by-step training/guides
</td>
<td>18
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Clearer steps to follow in posts; how-tos
</td>
<td>11
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Bring back UGC / YouMoz
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More from Rand
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Improve formatting of the emails
</td>
<td>9
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Higher-level, less-technical posts
</td>
<td>8
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More authors
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More news (algorithm updates, e.g.)
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Shorter posts, "quick wins"
</td>
<td>7
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Quizzes, polls, or other engagement opportunities
</td>
<td>6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Broader range of topics (engagement, CRO, etc.)
</td>
<td>6
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More about Moz tools
</td>
<td>5
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>More data-driven, less opinion-based
</td>
<td>5
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><hr><h2>What our readers want to see</h2><p>This section is a bit more future-facing, where some of what we asked before had to do with how things have been in the past.</p><h3>Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?</h3><p>There were very, very few surprises in this list. Lots of interest in on-page SEO and link building, as well as other core tactical areas of SEO. Content, branding, and social media all took dips -- that makes sense, given the fact that we don't usually post about those things anymore, and we've no doubt lost some audience members who were more interested in them as a result. Interestingly, mobile took a sizable dip, too. I'd be really curious to know what people think about why that is. My best guess is that with the mobile-first indexing from Google and with responsive designs having become so commonplace, there isn't as much of a need as there once was to think of mobile much <em>differently</em> than there was a couple of years ago. Also of note: When we did this survey in 2015, Google had recently rolled out its "<a href="https://moz.com/blog/9-things-about-googles-mobile-friendly-update" target="_blank">Mobile-Friendly Update</a>," not-so-affectionately referred to by many in the industry as Mobilegeddon. So... it was on our minds. =)
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a05b78f9.08617247.png">
</p><h3>Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is a great echo and validation of what we took away from the more general question about what you'd like to see different about the Blog: More tactical posts and step-by-step walkthroughs. Posts that cut to the chase and offer a clear direction forward, as opposed to some of the types at the bottom of this list, which offer more opinions and cerebral explorations:
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a0bf1ed5.97491501.png">
</p><hr><h2>What happens next?</h2><p>Now we go to work. =)
</p><p>We'll spend some time fully digesting this info, and coming up with new goals for 2018 aimed at making improvements inspired by your feedback. We'll keep you all apprised as we start moving forward.
</p><p>If you have any additional insight that strikes you in taking a look at these results, please do share it in the comments below -- we'd love to have those discussions.
</p><p>For now, we've got some initial takeaways that we're already planning to take action on.
</p><h3>Primary takeaways</h3><p>There are some relatively obvious things we can take away from these results that we're already working on:</p><ul><li>People in all businesses are finding it quite difficult to communicate the value of SEO to their clients, bosses, and colleagues. That's something we can help with, and we'll be developing materials in the near future to try and alleviate some of that particular frustration.</li><li>There's a real desire for more succinct, actionable, step-by-step walkthroughs on the Blog. We can pretty easily explore formats for posts that are off our "beaten path," and will attempt to make things easier to consume through improvements to both the content itself and its delivery. I think there's some room for more "short and sweet" mixed in with our longer norm.</li><li>The bulk of our audience does more than just SEO, despite a full 25% of them having it in their job titles, and the challenges you mentioned include a bunch of areas that are <em>related to</em>, but outside the traditional world of SEO. Since you all are clearly working on those sorts of things, we should work to highlight and facilitate the relationship between the SEO work and the non-SEO marketing work you do.</li><li>In looking through some of the other sites you all visit for information on SEO, and knowing the kinds of posts they typically publish, it's clear we've got an opportunity to publish more news. We've always dreamed of being more of a one-stop shop for SEO content, and that's good validation that we may want to head down that path.</li></ul><p>Again, thank you all <em>so much</em> for the time and effort you spent filling out this survey. Hopefully you'll notice some changes in the near (and not-so-near) future that make it clear we're really listening.</p><p>If you've got anything to add to these results -- insights, further explanations, questions for clarification, rebuttals of points, etc. -- please leave them in the comments below. We're looking forward to continuing the conversation. =)</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7633112.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 06 Dec 2017 00:04:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-resultsTrevor-Klein2017-12-06T00:04:00ZHow Local SEO Fits In With What You're Already Doinghttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7609965
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/13017\">MiriamEllis</a></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b2ac0909.36022991.jpg" alt="islandfinal.jpg"></p><p>You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO. </p><p>That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about <em>your</em> job at all. </p><p>And that’s the problem. </p><p>If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you. </p><p>By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of <em>customer acquisition, service, and retention</em> via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.</p><p>Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.</p><h2>The roots of the divide</h2><p>Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:</p><h3>1) Early separation of the local and organic algos</h3><p>Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-pigeon" target="_blank">Google’s Pigeon Update</a> in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.</p><p>This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.</p><h3>2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy</h3><p>Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is <a href="https://moz.com/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending" target="_blank">highlighted by historic stats like these</a> showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/randfish/inside-googles-numbers-in-2017" target="_blank">studies like this one</a> which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search. </p><p>My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only <a href="https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics" target="_blank">17% of small businesses investing in SEO</a>. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.</p><h3>3) A lot to take in and on</h3><p>Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:</p><ul><li>Technical website audits</li><li>On-site optimization</li><li>Linkbuilding</li><li>Keyword research</li><li>Content dev and promotion</li><li>Brand building</li><li>Social media marketing</li><li>PPC management</li><li>UX audits</li><li>Conversion optimization</li><li>Etc.</li></ul><p>Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:</p><ul><li>Ongoing citation management</li><li>Local on-site SEO</li><li>Local landing page dev</li><li>Store locator SEO</li><li>Review management</li><li>Local brand building</li><li>Local link building</li><li>And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...</li></ul><p> And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or <em>why their work matters</em>.</p><p>To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:</p><h2>Sharing is caring</h2><blockquote>“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” <br>- Jeff Bezos, Amazon</blockquote><p>Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b32606d7.23259649.jpg" alt="sharedgoalsfinal.jpg"></p><p>As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. <em>Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.</em></p><h2>Before I buy that kayak…</h2><p>On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?</p><p>Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.</p><p>I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. <em>This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand</em>. </p><p>On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.</p><p>And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.</p><p>“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”</p><p>Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot. </p><p>The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.</p><p>My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor. </p><p>After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/" target="_blank">worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase</a>. </p><blockquote><em>“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” <br>- Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn</em></blockquote><p>There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, <em>and you may miss out on the customer.</em> It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of <em>your </em>team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.</p><p>It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/13017\">MiriamEllis</a></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b2ac0909.36022991.jpg" alt="islandfinal.jpg"></p><p>You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO. </p><p>That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about <em>your</em> job at all. </p><p>And that’s the problem. </p><p>If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you. </p><p>By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of <em>customer acquisition, service, and retention</em> via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.</p><p>Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.</p><h2>The roots of the divide</h2><p>Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:</p><h3>1) Early separation of the local and organic algos</h3><p>Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-pigeon" target="_blank">Google’s Pigeon Update</a> in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.</p><p>This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.</p><h3>2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy</h3><p>Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is <a href="https://moz.com/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending" target="_blank">highlighted by historic stats like these</a> showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/randfish/inside-googles-numbers-in-2017" target="_blank">studies like this one</a> which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search. </p><p>My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only <a href="https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics" target="_blank">17% of small businesses investing in SEO</a>. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.</p><h3>3) A lot to take in and on</h3><p>Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:</p><ul><li>Technical website audits</li><li>On-site optimization</li><li>Linkbuilding</li><li>Keyword research</li><li>Content dev and promotion</li><li>Brand building</li><li>Social media marketing</li><li>PPC management</li><li>UX audits</li><li>Conversion optimization</li><li>Etc.</li></ul><p>Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:</p><ul><li>Ongoing citation management</li><li>Local on-site SEO</li><li>Local landing page dev</li><li>Store locator SEO</li><li>Review management</li><li>Local brand building</li><li>Local link building</li><li>And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...</li></ul><p> And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or <em>why their work matters</em>.</p><p>To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:</p><h2>Sharing is caring</h2><blockquote>“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.” <br>- Jeff Bezos, Amazon</blockquote><p>Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b32606d7.23259649.jpg" alt="sharedgoalsfinal.jpg"></p><p>As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. <em>Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.</em></p><h2>Before I buy that kayak…</h2><p>On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?</p><p>Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.</p><p>I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. <em>This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand</em>. </p><p>On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.</p><p>And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.</p><p>“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”</p><p>Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot. </p><p>The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.</p><p>My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor. </p><p>After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/" target="_blank">worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase</a>. </p><blockquote><em>“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.” <br>- Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn</em></blockquote><p>There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, <em>and you may miss out on the customer.</em> It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of <em>your </em>team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.</p><p>It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7609965.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Mon, 04 Dec 2017 00:01:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/the-local-seo-illusionMiriamEllis2017-12-04T00:01:00ZDesigning a Page's Content Flow to Maximize SEO Opportunity - Whiteboard Fridayhttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7578979
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/63\">randfish</a></p><p>Controlling and improving the flow of your on-site content can actually help your SEO. What's the best way to capitalize on the opportunity present in your page design? Rand covers the questions you need to ask (and answer) and the goals you should strive for in today's Whiteboard Friday.
</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;">
<iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/s9ad0z1eee?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%">
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</p><script rel="display: none;" src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async=""></script><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/designing-a-page-s-content-flow-to-maximize-seo-opportunity-whiteboard-friday/5a209b654369e7.88708807.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/designing-a-page-s-content-flow-to-maximize-seo-opportunity-whiteboard-friday/5a209b654369e7.88708807.jpg" alt="Designing a page's content flow to maximize SEO opportunity" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;"></a>
</p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!
</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/363558659&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true">&#38;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&#38;amp;amp;gt;&#38;amp;amp;lt;/span&#38;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about a designing a page's content flow to help with your SEO. <br><br>Now, unfortunately, somehow in the world of SEO tactics, this one has gotten left by the wayside. I think a lot of people in the SEO world are investing in things like content and solving searchers' problems and getting to the bottom of searcher intent. But unfortunately, the page design and the flow of the elements, the UI elements, the content elements that sit in a page is discarded or left aside. That's unfortunate because it can actually make a huge difference to your SEO.
</p><h2>Q: What needs to go on this page, in what order, with what placement?</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-3-210844.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;">
</p><p>So if we're asking ourselves like, "Well, what's the question here?" Well, it's what needs to go on this page. I'm trying to rank for "faster home Wi-Fi." Right now, Lifehacker and a bunch of other people are ranking in these results. It gets a ton of searches. I can drive a lot of revenue for my business if I can rank there. But what needs to go on this page in what order with what placement in order for me to perform the best that I possibly can? It turns out that sometimes great content gets buried in a poor page design and poor page flow. But if we want to answer this question, we actually have to ask some other ones. We need answers to at least these three:
</p><p><strong>A. What is the searcher in this case trying to accomplish?</strong>
</p><p>When they enter "faster home Wi-Fi," what's the task that they want to get done?
</p><p><strong>B. Are there multiple intents behind this query, and which ones are most popular?</strong>
</p><p>What's the popularity of those intents in what order? We need to know that so that we can design our flow around the most common ones first and the secondary and tertiary ones next.
</p><p><strong>C. What's the business goal of ranking? What are we trying to accomplish?</strong>
</p><p>That's always going to have to be balanced out with what is the searcher trying to accomplish. Otherwise, in a lot of cases, there's no point in ranking at all. If we can't get our goals met, we should just rank for something else where we can.
</p><h2>Let's assume we've got some answers:</h2><p>Let's assume that, in this case, we have some good answers to these questions so we can proceed. So pretty simple. If I search for "faster home Wi-Fi," what I want is usually it's going to be...
</p><p><strong>A. Faster download speed at home.</strong>
</p><p>That's what the searcher is trying to accomplish. But there are multiple intents behind this. Sometimes the searcher is looking to do that..
</p><p><strong>B1. With their current ISP and their current equipment.</strong>
</p><p>They want to know things they can optimize that don't cause them to spend money. Can they place their router in different places? Can they change out a cable? Do they need to put it in a different room? Do they need to move their computer? Is the problem something else that's interfering with their Wi-Fi in their home that they need to turn off? Those kinds of issues.
</p><p><strong>B2. With a new ISP.</strong>
</p><p>Or can they get a new ISP? They might be looking for an ISP that can provide them with faster home internet in their area, and they want to know what's available, which is a very different intent than the first one.
</p><p><strong>B3. With current ISP but new equipment.</strong>
</p><p>maybe they want to keep their ISP, but they are willing to upgrade to new equipment. So they're looking for what's the equipment that I could buy that would make the current ISP I have, which in many cases in the United States, sadly, there's only one ISP that can provide you with service in a lot of areas. So they can't change ISP, but they can change out their equipment.
</p><p><strong>C. Affiliate revenue with product referrals.</strong>
</p><p>Let's assume that (C) is we know that what we're trying to accomplish is affiliate revenue from product referrals. So our business is basically we're going to send people to new routers or the Google Mesh Network home device, and we get affiliate revenue by passing folks off to those products and recommending them.
</p><h2>Now we can design a content flow.</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-2-107471.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;">
</p><p>Okay, fair enough. We now have enough to be able to take care of this design flow. The design flow can involve lots of things. There are a lot of things that could live on a page, everything from navigation to headline to the lead-in copy or the header image or body content, graphics, reference links, the footer, a sidebar potentially.
</p><p>The elements that go in here are not actually what we're talking about today. We can have that conversation too. I want a headline that's going to tell people that I serve all of these different intents. I want to have a lead-in that has a potential to be the featured snippet in there. I want a header image that can rank in image results and be in the featured snippet panel. I'm going to want body content that serves all of these in the order that's most popular. I want graphics and visuals that suggest to people that I've done my research and I can provably show that the results that you get with this different equipment or this different ISP will be relevant to them.
</p><p>But really, what we're talking about here is the flow that matters. The content itself, the problem is that it gets buried. What I see many times is folks will take a powerful visual or a powerful piece of content that's solving the searcher's query and they'll put it in a place on the page where it's hard to access or hard to find. So even though they've actually got great content, it is buried by the page's design.
</p><h2>5 big goals that matter.</h2><p>The goals that matter here and the ones that you should be optimizing for when you're thinking about the design of this flow are:
</p><p><strong>1. How do I solve the searcher's task quickly and enjoyably?</strong>
</p><p>So that's about user experience as well as the UI. I know that, for many people, they are going to want to see and, in fact, the result that's ranking up here on the top is Lifehacker's top 10 list for how to get your home Wi-Fi faster. They include things like upgrading your ISP, and here's a tool to see what's available in your area. They include maybe you need a better router, and here are the best ones. Maybe you need a different network or something that expands your network in your home, and here's a link out to those. So they're serving that purpose up front, up top.
</p><p><strong>2. Serve these multiple intents in the order of demand.</strong>
</p><p>So if we can intuit that most people want to stick with their ISP, but are willing to change equipment, we can serve this one first (B3). We can serve this one second (B1), and we can serve the change out my ISP third (B2), which is actually the ideal fit in this scenario for us. That helps us
</p><p><strong>3. Optimize for the business goal without sacrificing one and two.</strong>
</p><p>I would urge you to design generally with the searcher in mind and if you can fit in the business goal, that is ideal. Otherwise, what tends to happen is the business goal comes first, the searcher comes second, and you come tenth in the results.
</p><p><strong>4. If possible, try to claim the featured snippet and the visual image that go up there.</strong>
</p><p>That means using the lead-in up at the top. It's usually the first paragraph or the first few lines of text in an ordered or unordered list, along with a header image or visual in order to capture that featured snippet. That's very powerful for search results that are still showing it.
</p><p><strong>5. Limit our bounce back to the SERP as much as possible.</strong>
</p><p>In many cases, this means limiting some of the UI or design flow elements that hamper people from solving their problems or that annoy or dissuade them. So, for example, advertising that pops up or overlays that come up before I've gotten two-thirds of the way down the page really tend to hamper efforts, really tend to increase this bounce back to the SERP, the search engine call pogo-sticking and can harm your rankings dramatically. Design elements, design flows where the content that actually solves the problem is below an advertising block or below a promotional block, that also is very limiting.
</p><p>So to the degree that we can control the design of our pages and optimize for that, we can actually take existing content that you might already have and improve its rankings without having to remake it, without needing new links, simply by improving the flow.
</p><p>I hope we'll see lots of examples of those in the comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.<br>
</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a>
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/63\">randfish</a></p><p>Controlling and improving the flow of your on-site content can actually help your SEO. What's the best way to capitalize on the opportunity present in your page design? Rand covers the questions you need to ask (and answer) and the goals you should strive for in today's Whiteboard Friday.
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</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/363558659&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true">&#38;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&#38;amp;amp;gt;&#38;amp;amp;lt;/span&#38;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about a designing a page's content flow to help with your SEO. <br><br>Now, unfortunately, somehow in the world of SEO tactics, this one has gotten left by the wayside. I think a lot of people in the SEO world are investing in things like content and solving searchers' problems and getting to the bottom of searcher intent. But unfortunately, the page design and the flow of the elements, the UI elements, the content elements that sit in a page is discarded or left aside. That's unfortunate because it can actually make a huge difference to your SEO.
</p><h2>Q: What needs to go on this page, in what order, with what placement?</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-3-210844.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;">
</p><p>So if we're asking ourselves like, "Well, what's the question here?" Well, it's what needs to go on this page. I'm trying to rank for "faster home Wi-Fi." Right now, Lifehacker and a bunch of other people are ranking in these results. It gets a ton of searches. I can drive a lot of revenue for my business if I can rank there. But what needs to go on this page in what order with what placement in order for me to perform the best that I possibly can? It turns out that sometimes great content gets buried in a poor page design and poor page flow. But if we want to answer this question, we actually have to ask some other ones. We need answers to at least these three:
</p><p><strong>A. What is the searcher in this case trying to accomplish?</strong>
</p><p>When they enter "faster home Wi-Fi," what's the task that they want to get done?
</p><p><strong>B. Are there multiple intents behind this query, and which ones are most popular?</strong>
</p><p>What's the popularity of those intents in what order? We need to know that so that we can design our flow around the most common ones first and the secondary and tertiary ones next.
</p><p><strong>C. What's the business goal of ranking? What are we trying to accomplish?</strong>
</p><p>That's always going to have to be balanced out with what is the searcher trying to accomplish. Otherwise, in a lot of cases, there's no point in ranking at all. If we can't get our goals met, we should just rank for something else where we can.
</p><h2>Let's assume we've got some answers:</h2><p>Let's assume that, in this case, we have some good answers to these questions so we can proceed. So pretty simple. If I search for "faster home Wi-Fi," what I want is usually it's going to be...
</p><p><strong>A. Faster download speed at home.</strong>
</p><p>That's what the searcher is trying to accomplish. But there are multiple intents behind this. Sometimes the searcher is looking to do that..
</p><p><strong>B1. With their current ISP and their current equipment.</strong>
</p><p>They want to know things they can optimize that don't cause them to spend money. Can they place their router in different places? Can they change out a cable? Do they need to put it in a different room? Do they need to move their computer? Is the problem something else that's interfering with their Wi-Fi in their home that they need to turn off? Those kinds of issues.
</p><p><strong>B2. With a new ISP.</strong>
</p><p>Or can they get a new ISP? They might be looking for an ISP that can provide them with faster home internet in their area, and they want to know what's available, which is a very different intent than the first one.
</p><p><strong>B3. With current ISP but new equipment.</strong>
</p><p>maybe they want to keep their ISP, but they are willing to upgrade to new equipment. So they're looking for what's the equipment that I could buy that would make the current ISP I have, which in many cases in the United States, sadly, there's only one ISP that can provide you with service in a lot of areas. So they can't change ISP, but they can change out their equipment.
</p><p><strong>C. Affiliate revenue with product referrals.</strong>
</p><p>Let's assume that (C) is we know that what we're trying to accomplish is affiliate revenue from product referrals. So our business is basically we're going to send people to new routers or the Google Mesh Network home device, and we get affiliate revenue by passing folks off to those products and recommending them.
</p><h2>Now we can design a content flow.</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-2-107471.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;">
</p><p>Okay, fair enough. We now have enough to be able to take care of this design flow. The design flow can involve lots of things. There are a lot of things that could live on a page, everything from navigation to headline to the lead-in copy or the header image or body content, graphics, reference links, the footer, a sidebar potentially.
</p><p>The elements that go in here are not actually what we're talking about today. We can have that conversation too. I want a headline that's going to tell people that I serve all of these different intents. I want to have a lead-in that has a potential to be the featured snippet in there. I want a header image that can rank in image results and be in the featured snippet panel. I'm going to want body content that serves all of these in the order that's most popular. I want graphics and visuals that suggest to people that I've done my research and I can provably show that the results that you get with this different equipment or this different ISP will be relevant to them.
</p><p>But really, what we're talking about here is the flow that matters. The content itself, the problem is that it gets buried. What I see many times is folks will take a powerful visual or a powerful piece of content that's solving the searcher's query and they'll put it in a place on the page where it's hard to access or hard to find. So even though they've actually got great content, it is buried by the page's design.
</p><h2>5 big goals that matter.</h2><p>The goals that matter here and the ones that you should be optimizing for when you're thinking about the design of this flow are:
</p><p><strong>1. How do I solve the searcher's task quickly and enjoyably?</strong>
</p><p>So that's about user experience as well as the UI. I know that, for many people, they are going to want to see and, in fact, the result that's ranking up here on the top is Lifehacker's top 10 list for how to get your home Wi-Fi faster. They include things like upgrading your ISP, and here's a tool to see what's available in your area. They include maybe you need a better router, and here are the best ones. Maybe you need a different network or something that expands your network in your home, and here's a link out to those. So they're serving that purpose up front, up top.
</p><p><strong>2. Serve these multiple intents in the order of demand.</strong>
</p><p>So if we can intuit that most people want to stick with their ISP, but are willing to change equipment, we can serve this one first (B3). We can serve this one second (B1), and we can serve the change out my ISP third (B2), which is actually the ideal fit in this scenario for us. That helps us
</p><p><strong>3. Optimize for the business goal without sacrificing one and two.</strong>
</p><p>I would urge you to design generally with the searcher in mind and if you can fit in the business goal, that is ideal. Otherwise, what tends to happen is the business goal comes first, the searcher comes second, and you come tenth in the results.
</p><p><strong>4. If possible, try to claim the featured snippet and the visual image that go up there.</strong>
</p><p>That means using the lead-in up at the top. It's usually the first paragraph or the first few lines of text in an ordered or unordered list, along with a header image or visual in order to capture that featured snippet. That's very powerful for search results that are still showing it.
</p><p><strong>5. Limit our bounce back to the SERP as much as possible.</strong>
</p><p>In many cases, this means limiting some of the UI or design flow elements that hamper people from solving their problems or that annoy or dissuade them. So, for example, advertising that pops up or overlays that come up before I've gotten two-thirds of the way down the page really tend to hamper efforts, really tend to increase this bounce back to the SERP, the search engine call pogo-sticking and can harm your rankings dramatically. Design elements, design flows where the content that actually solves the problem is below an advertising block or below a promotional block, that also is very limiting.
</p><p>So to the degree that we can control the design of our pages and optimize for that, we can actually take existing content that you might already have and improve its rankings without having to remake it, without needing new links, simply by improving the flow.
</p><p>I hope we'll see lots of examples of those in the comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.<br>
</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a>
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7578979.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Fri, 01 Dec 2017 00:03:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/page-content-flow-to-maximize-seorandfish2017-12-01T00:03:00ZThe Complete Guide to Direct Traffic in Google Analyticshttp://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/7556172
<p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/10671287\">tombennet</a></p><p>When it comes to direct traffic in Analytics, there are two deeply entrenched misconceptions.
</p><p>The first is that it’s caused almost exclusively by users typing an address into their browser (or clicking on a bookmark). The second is that it’s a <em>Bad Thing</em>, not because it has any overt negative impact on your site’s performance, but rather because it’s somehow immune to further analysis. The prevailing attitude amongst digital marketers is that direct traffic is an unavoidable inconvenience; as a result, discussion of direct is typically limited to ways of attributing it to other channels, or side-stepping the issues associated with it.
</p><p>In this article, we’ll be taking a fresh look at direct traffic in modern Google Analytics. As well as exploring the myriad ways in which referrer data can be lost, we’ll look at some tools and tactics you can start using immediately to reduce levels of direct traffic in your reports. Finally, we’ll discover how advanced analysis and segmentation can unlock the mysteries of direct traffic and shed light on what might actually be your most valuable users.
</p><h2>What is direct traffic?</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df786c3fd42.13567253.png">
</p><p>In short, Google Analytics will report a traffic source of "direct" when it has no data on how the session arrived at your website, or when the referring source has been configured to be ignored. You can think of direct as GA’s fall-back option for when its processing logic has failed to attribute a session to a particular source.
</p><p>To properly understand the causes and fixes for direct traffic, it’s important to understand exactly how GA processes traffic sources. The following flow-chart illustrates how sessions are bucketed — note that direct sits right at the end as a final "catch-all" group.
</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/oFXDXsn.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/campaign-processing-final-422987.jpg" alt="" "=""></a>
</p><p>Broadly speaking, and disregarding user-configured overrides, GA’s processing follows this sequence of checks:
</p><p><em>AdWords parameters &#62; Campaign overrides &#62; UTM campaign parameters &#62; Referred by a search engine &#62; Referred by another website &#62; Previous campaign within timeout period &#62; Direct</em>
</p><p>Note the penultimate processing step (<em>previous campaign within timeout</em>), which has a significant impact on the direct channel. Consider a user who discovers your site via organic search, then returns via direct a week later. Both sessions would be attributed to organic search. In fact, campaign data persists for up to six months by default. The key point here is that Google Analytics is already trying to minimize the impact of direct traffic for you.
</p><h2>What causes direct traffic?</h2><p>Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many reasons why a session might be missing campaign and traffic source data. Here we will run through some of the most common.
</p><h3>1. Manual address entry and bookmarks</h3><p>The classic direct-traffic scenario, this one is largely unavoidable. If a user types a URL into their browser’s address bar or clicks on a browser bookmark, that session will appear as direct traffic.
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df78734a5a1.86359518.png">
</p><p>Simple as that.
</p><h3>2. HTTPS &#62; HTTP</h3><p>When a user follows a link on a secure (HTTPS) page to a non-secure (HTTP) page, no referrer data is passed, meaning the session appears as direct traffic instead of as a referral. Note that this is intended behavior. It’s part of how the secure protocol was designed, and it does not affect other scenarios: HTTP to HTTP, HTTPS to HTTPS, and even HTTP to HTTPS all pass referrer data.
</p><p>So, if your referral traffic has tanked but direct has spiked, it could be that one of your major referrers has migrated to HTTPS. The inverse is also true: If you’ve migrated to HTTPS and are linking to HTTP websites, the traffic you’re driving to them will appear in <em>their</em> Analytics as direct.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7878599b4.33289691.png">If your referrers have moved to HTTPS and you’re stuck on HTTP, you really ought to consider migrating to HTTPS. Doing so (and updating your backlinks to point to HTTPS URLs) will bring back any referrer data which is being stripped from cross-protocol traffic. SSL certificates can now be obtained for free thanks to automated authorities like <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/" target="_blank">LetsEncrypt</a>, but that’s not to say you should neglect to explore the potentially-significant SEO implications of <a href="https://moz.com/blog/no-such-thing-as-a-site-migration" target="_blank">site migrations</a>. Remember, HTTPS and HTTP/2 are the future of the web.
</p><p>If, on the other hand, you’ve already migrated to HTTPS and are concerned about your users appearing to partner websites as direct traffic, you can implement the meta referrer tag. Cyrus Shepard has <a href="https://moz.com/blog/meta-referrer-tag" target="_blank">written about this on Moz</a> before, so I won’t delve into it now. Suffice to say, it’s a way of telling browsers to pass <em>some</em> referrer data to non-secure sites, and can be <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy">implemented</a> as a &#60;meta&#62; element or HTTP header.
</p><h3>3. Missing or broken tracking code</h3><p>Let’s say you’ve launched a new landing page template and forgotten to include the GA tracking code. Or, to use a scenario I’m encountering more and more frequently, imagine your GTM container is a horrible mess of poorly configured triggers, and your tracking code is simply failing to fire.
</p><p>Users land on this page without tracking code. They click on a link to a deeper page which <em>does</em> have tracking code. From GA’s perspective, the first hit of the session is the second page visited, meaning that the referrer appears as your own website (i.e. a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6350128?hl=en" target="_blank">self-referral</a>). If your domain is on the referral exclusion list (as per default configuration), the session is bucketed as direct. This will happen even if the first URL is tagged with UTM campaign parameters.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df787ea2ef6.09255866.png">
</p><p>As a short-term fix, you can try to repair the damage by simply adding the missing tracking code. To prevent it happening again, carry out a thorough <a href="https://builtvisible.com/analytics-auditing/" target="_blank">Analytics audit</a>, move to a GTM-based tracking implementation, and promote a culture of data-driven marketing.
</p><h3>4. Improper redirection</h3><p>This is an easy one. Don’t use meta refreshes or JavaScript-based redirects — these can wipe or replace referrer data, leading to direct traffic in Analytics. You should also be meticulous with your server-side redirects, and — as is often recommended by SEOs — audit your redirect file frequently. Complex chains are more likely to result in a loss of referrer data, and you run the risk of UTM parameters getting stripped out.
</p><p>Once again, control what you can: use carefully mapped (i.e. non-chained) code 301 server-side redirects to preserve referrer data wherever possible.
</p><h3>5. Non-web documents</h3><p>Links in Microsoft Word documents, slide decks, or PDFs do not pass referrer information. By default, users who click these links will appear in your reports as direct traffic. Clicks from native mobile apps (particularly those with embedded "in-app" browsers) are similarly prone to stripping out referrer data.
</p><p>To a degree, this is unavoidable. Much like so-called “dark social” visits (discussed in detail below), non-web links will inevitably result in some quantity of direct traffic. However, you also have an opportunity here to <em>control the controllables.</em>
</p><p>If you publish whitepapers or offer downloadable PDF guides, for example, you should be tagging the embedded hyperlinks with <a href="https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/" target="_blank">UTM campaign parameters</a>. You’d never even contemplate launching an email marketing campaign without campaign tracking (I hope), so why would you distribute any other kind of freebie without similarly tracking its success? In some ways this is even <em>more</em> important, since these kinds of downloadables often have a longevity not seen in a single email campaign. Here’s an example of a properly tagged URL which we would embed as a link:
</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://builtvisible.com/embedded-whitepaper-url/?utm_source=whitepaper&utm<br>
</p><p>The same goes for URLs in your <em>offline</em> marketing materials. For major campaigns it’s common practice to select a short, memorable URL (e.g. moz.com/tv/) and design an entirely new landing page. It’s possible to bypass page creation altogether: simply redirect the vanity URL to an existing page URL which is properly tagged with UTM parameters.
</p><p>So, whether you tag your URLs directly, use redirected vanity URLs, or — if you think UTM parameters are ugly — opt for some crazy-ass hash-fragment solution with GTM (<a href="https://builtvisible.com/one-weird-trick-to-avoid-utm-parameters/" target="_blank">read more here</a>), the takeaway is the same: use campaign parameters wherever it’s appropriate to do so.
</p><h3>6. “Dark social”</h3><p>This is a big one, and probably the least well understood by marketers.
</p><p>The term “dark social” was first coined back in 2012 by Alexis Madrigal in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/dark-social-we-have-the-whole-history-of-the-web-wrong/263523/" target="_blank">an article for The Atlantic</a>. Essentially it refers to methods of social sharing which cannot easily be attributed to a particular source, like email, instant messaging, Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
</p><p><a href="https://radiumone.com/darksocial/" target="_blank">Recent studies</a> have found that upwards of 80% of consumers’ outbound sharing from publishers’ and marketers’ websites now occurs via these private channels. In terms of numbers of active users, messaging apps are <em>outpacing</em> social networking apps. All the activity driven by these thriving platforms is typically bucketed as direct traffic by web analytics software.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df788741f31.91792226.png">
</p><p>People who use the ambiguous phrase “social media marketing” are typically referring to <em>advertising</em>: you broadcast your message and hope people will listen. Even if you overcome consumer indifference with a well-targeted campaign, any subsequent interactions are affected by their very public nature. The privacy of dark social, by contrast, represents a potential goldmine of intimate, targeted, and relevant interactions with high conversion potential. Nebulous and difficult-to-track though it may be, dark social has the potential to let marketers tap into elusive power of <em>word of mouth</em>.
</p><p>So, how can we minimize the amount of dark social traffic which is bucketed under direct? The unfortunate truth is that there is no magic bullet: proper attribution of dark social requires rigorous campaign tracking. The optimal approach will vary greatly based on your industry, audience, proposition, and so on. For many websites, however, a good first step is to provide convenient and properly configured sharing buttons for private platforms like email, WhatsApp, and Slack, thereby ensuring that users share URLs appended with UTM parameters (or vanity/shortened URLs which redirect to the same). This will go some way towards shining a light on <em>part</em> of your dark social traffic.
</p><h2>Checklist: Minimizing direct traffic</h2><p>To summarize what we’ve already discussed, here are the steps you can take to minimize the level of unnecessary direct traffic in your reports:
</p><ol>
<li><strong>Migrate to HTTPS: </strong>Not only is the secure protocol your gateway to HTTP/2 and the future of the web, it will also have an enormously positive effect on your ability to track referral traffic.</li>
<li><strong>Manage your use of redirects:</strong> Avoid chains and eliminate client-side redirection in favour of carefully-mapped, single-hop, server-side 301s. If you use vanity URLs to redirect to pages with UTM parameters, be meticulous.</li>
<li><strong>Get really good at campaign tagging:</strong> Even amongst data-driven marketers I encounter the belief that UTM begins and ends with switching on automatic tagging in your email marketing software. Others go to the other extreme, doing silly things like tagging internal links. Control what you can, and your ability to carry out meaningful attribution will markedly improve.</li>
<li><strong>Conduct an Analytics audit: </strong>Data integrity is vital, so consider this essential when assessing the success of your marketing. It’s not simply a case of checking for missing track code: good audits involve a review of your measurement plan and rigorous testing at page and property-level.</li>
</ol><p>Adhere to these principles, and it’s often possible to achieve a dramatic reduction in the level of direct traffic reported in Analytics. The following example involved an HTTPS migration, GTM migration (as part of an Analytics review), and an overhaul of internal campaign tracking processes over the course of about 6 months:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7892938f9.72562485.png">
</p><p>But the saga of direct traffic doesn’t end there! Once this channel is “clean” — that is, once you’ve minimized the number of avoidable pollutants — what remains might actually be one of your most valuable traffic segments.
</p><h2>Analyze! Or: why direct traffic can actually be pretty cool</h2><p>For reasons we’ve already discussed, traffic from bookmarks and dark social is an enormously valuable segment to analyze. These are likely to be some of your most loyal and engaged users, and it’s not uncommon to see a notably higher conversion rate for a clean direct channel compared to the site average. You should make the effort to get to know them.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7898e1021.58268901.png">
</p><p>The number of potential avenues to explore is infinite, but here are some good starting points:
</p><ul>
<li>Build meaningful custom segments, defining a subset of your direct traffic based on their landing page, location, device, repeat visit or purchase behavior, or even enhanced e-commerce interactions.</li>
<li>Track meaningful engagement metrics using modern GTM triggers such as <a href="https://builtvisible.com/tracking-element-visibility-with-gtm/" target="_blank">element visibility and native scroll tracking</a>. Measure <em>how</em> your direct users are using and viewing your content.</li>
<li>Watch for correlations with your other marketing activities, and use it as an opportunity to refine your tagging practices and segment definitions. Create a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033021?hl=en" target="_blank">custom alert</a> which watches for spikes in direct traffic.</li>
<li>Familiarize yourself with flow reports to get an understanding of how your direct traffic is converting. By using Goal Flow and Behavior Flow reports with segmentation, it’s often possible to glean actionable insights which can be applied to the site as a whole.</li>
<li>Ask your users for help! If you’ve isolated a valuable segment of traffic which eludes deeper analysis, add a button to the page offering visitors a free downloadable ebook if they tell you how they discovered your page.</li>
<li>Start thinking about lifetime value, if you haven’t already — overhauling your attribution model or implementing <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3123662?hl=en" target="_blank">User ID</a> are good steps towards overcoming the indifference or frustration felt by marketers towards direct traffic.</li>
</ul><p>I hope this guide has been useful. With any luck, you arrived looking for ways to reduce the level of direct traffic in your reports, and left with some new ideas for how to better analyze this valuable segment of users.
</p><p>Thanks for reading!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><p>Posted by <a href=\"https://moz.com/community/users/10671287\">tombennet</a></p><p>When it comes to direct traffic in Analytics, there are two deeply entrenched misconceptions.
</p><p>The first is that it’s caused almost exclusively by users typing an address into their browser (or clicking on a bookmark). The second is that it’s a <em>Bad Thing</em>, not because it has any overt negative impact on your site’s performance, but rather because it’s somehow immune to further analysis. The prevailing attitude amongst digital marketers is that direct traffic is an unavoidable inconvenience; as a result, discussion of direct is typically limited to ways of attributing it to other channels, or side-stepping the issues associated with it.
</p><p>In this article, we’ll be taking a fresh look at direct traffic in modern Google Analytics. As well as exploring the myriad ways in which referrer data can be lost, we’ll look at some tools and tactics you can start using immediately to reduce levels of direct traffic in your reports. Finally, we’ll discover how advanced analysis and segmentation can unlock the mysteries of direct traffic and shed light on what might actually be your most valuable users.
</p><h2>What is direct traffic?</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df786c3fd42.13567253.png">
</p><p>In short, Google Analytics will report a traffic source of "direct" when it has no data on how the session arrived at your website, or when the referring source has been configured to be ignored. You can think of direct as GA’s fall-back option for when its processing logic has failed to attribute a session to a particular source.
</p><p>To properly understand the causes and fixes for direct traffic, it’s important to understand exactly how GA processes traffic sources. The following flow-chart illustrates how sessions are bucketed — note that direct sits right at the end as a final "catch-all" group.
</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/oFXDXsn.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/campaign-processing-final-422987.jpg" alt="" "=""></a>
</p><p>Broadly speaking, and disregarding user-configured overrides, GA’s processing follows this sequence of checks:
</p><p><em>AdWords parameters &#62; Campaign overrides &#62; UTM campaign parameters &#62; Referred by a search engine &#62; Referred by another website &#62; Previous campaign within timeout period &#62; Direct</em>
</p><p>Note the penultimate processing step (<em>previous campaign within timeout</em>), which has a significant impact on the direct channel. Consider a user who discovers your site via organic search, then returns via direct a week later. Both sessions would be attributed to organic search. In fact, campaign data persists for up to six months by default. The key point here is that Google Analytics is already trying to minimize the impact of direct traffic for you.
</p><h2>What causes direct traffic?</h2><p>Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many reasons why a session might be missing campaign and traffic source data. Here we will run through some of the most common.
</p><h3>1. Manual address entry and bookmarks</h3><p>The classic direct-traffic scenario, this one is largely unavoidable. If a user types a URL into their browser’s address bar or clicks on a browser bookmark, that session will appear as direct traffic.
</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df78734a5a1.86359518.png">
</p><p>Simple as that.
</p><h3>2. HTTPS &#62; HTTP</h3><p>When a user follows a link on a secure (HTTPS) page to a non-secure (HTTP) page, no referrer data is passed, meaning the session appears as direct traffic instead of as a referral. Note that this is intended behavior. It’s part of how the secure protocol was designed, and it does not affect other scenarios: HTTP to HTTP, HTTPS to HTTPS, and even HTTP to HTTPS all pass referrer data.
</p><p>So, if your referral traffic has tanked but direct has spiked, it could be that one of your major referrers has migrated to HTTPS. The inverse is also true: If you’ve migrated to HTTPS and are linking to HTTP websites, the traffic you’re driving to them will appear in <em>their</em> Analytics as direct.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7878599b4.33289691.png">If your referrers have moved to HTTPS and you’re stuck on HTTP, you really ought to consider migrating to HTTPS. Doing so (and updating your backlinks to point to HTTPS URLs) will bring back any referrer data which is being stripped from cross-protocol traffic. SSL certificates can now be obtained for free thanks to automated authorities like <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/" target="_blank">LetsEncrypt</a>, but that’s not to say you should neglect to explore the potentially-significant SEO implications of <a href="https://moz.com/blog/no-such-thing-as-a-site-migration" target="_blank">site migrations</a>. Remember, HTTPS and HTTP/2 are the future of the web.
</p><p>If, on the other hand, you’ve already migrated to HTTPS and are concerned about your users appearing to partner websites as direct traffic, you can implement the meta referrer tag. Cyrus Shepard has <a href="https://moz.com/blog/meta-referrer-tag" target="_blank">written about this on Moz</a> before, so I won’t delve into it now. Suffice to say, it’s a way of telling browsers to pass <em>some</em> referrer data to non-secure sites, and can be <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy">implemented</a> as a &#60;meta&#62; element or HTTP header.
</p><h3>3. Missing or broken tracking code</h3><p>Let’s say you’ve launched a new landing page template and forgotten to include the GA tracking code. Or, to use a scenario I’m encountering more and more frequently, imagine your GTM container is a horrible mess of poorly configured triggers, and your tracking code is simply failing to fire.
</p><p>Users land on this page without tracking code. They click on a link to a deeper page which <em>does</em> have tracking code. From GA’s perspective, the first hit of the session is the second page visited, meaning that the referrer appears as your own website (i.e. a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6350128?hl=en" target="_blank">self-referral</a>). If your domain is on the referral exclusion list (as per default configuration), the session is bucketed as direct. This will happen even if the first URL is tagged with UTM campaign parameters.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df787ea2ef6.09255866.png">
</p><p>As a short-term fix, you can try to repair the damage by simply adding the missing tracking code. To prevent it happening again, carry out a thorough <a href="https://builtvisible.com/analytics-auditing/" target="_blank">Analytics audit</a>, move to a GTM-based tracking implementation, and promote a culture of data-driven marketing.
</p><h3>4. Improper redirection</h3><p>This is an easy one. Don’t use meta refreshes or JavaScript-based redirects — these can wipe or replace referrer data, leading to direct traffic in Analytics. You should also be meticulous with your server-side redirects, and — as is often recommended by SEOs — audit your redirect file frequently. Complex chains are more likely to result in a loss of referrer data, and you run the risk of UTM parameters getting stripped out.
</p><p>Once again, control what you can: use carefully mapped (i.e. non-chained) code 301 server-side redirects to preserve referrer data wherever possible.
</p><h3>5. Non-web documents</h3><p>Links in Microsoft Word documents, slide decks, or PDFs do not pass referrer information. By default, users who click these links will appear in your reports as direct traffic. Clicks from native mobile apps (particularly those with embedded "in-app" browsers) are similarly prone to stripping out referrer data.
</p><p>To a degree, this is unavoidable. Much like so-called “dark social” visits (discussed in detail below), non-web links will inevitably result in some quantity of direct traffic. However, you also have an opportunity here to <em>control the controllables.</em>
</p><p>If you publish whitepapers or offer downloadable PDF guides, for example, you should be tagging the embedded hyperlinks with <a href="https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/" target="_blank">UTM campaign parameters</a>. You’d never even contemplate launching an email marketing campaign without campaign tracking (I hope), so why would you distribute any other kind of freebie without similarly tracking its success? In some ways this is even <em>more</em> important, since these kinds of downloadables often have a longevity not seen in a single email campaign. Here’s an example of a properly tagged URL which we would embed as a link:
</p><p style="text-align: center;">https://builtvisible.com/embedded-whitepaper-url/?utm_source=whitepaper&utm<br>
</p><p>The same goes for URLs in your <em>offline</em> marketing materials. For major campaigns it’s common practice to select a short, memorable URL (e.g. moz.com/tv/) and design an entirely new landing page. It’s possible to bypass page creation altogether: simply redirect the vanity URL to an existing page URL which is properly tagged with UTM parameters.
</p><p>So, whether you tag your URLs directly, use redirected vanity URLs, or — if you think UTM parameters are ugly — opt for some crazy-ass hash-fragment solution with GTM (<a href="https://builtvisible.com/one-weird-trick-to-avoid-utm-parameters/" target="_blank">read more here</a>), the takeaway is the same: use campaign parameters wherever it’s appropriate to do so.
</p><h3>6. “Dark social”</h3><p>This is a big one, and probably the least well understood by marketers.
</p><p>The term “dark social” was first coined back in 2012 by Alexis Madrigal in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/dark-social-we-have-the-whole-history-of-the-web-wrong/263523/" target="_blank">an article for The Atlantic</a>. Essentially it refers to methods of social sharing which cannot easily be attributed to a particular source, like email, instant messaging, Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.
</p><p><a href="https://radiumone.com/darksocial/" target="_blank">Recent studies</a> have found that upwards of 80% of consumers’ outbound sharing from publishers’ and marketers’ websites now occurs via these private channels. In terms of numbers of active users, messaging apps are <em>outpacing</em> social networking apps. All the activity driven by these thriving platforms is typically bucketed as direct traffic by web analytics software.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df788741f31.91792226.png">
</p><p>People who use the ambiguous phrase “social media marketing” are typically referring to <em>advertising</em>: you broadcast your message and hope people will listen. Even if you overcome consumer indifference with a well-targeted campaign, any subsequent interactions are affected by their very public nature. The privacy of dark social, by contrast, represents a potential goldmine of intimate, targeted, and relevant interactions with high conversion potential. Nebulous and difficult-to-track though it may be, dark social has the potential to let marketers tap into elusive power of <em>word of mouth</em>.
</p><p>So, how can we minimize the amount of dark social traffic which is bucketed under direct? The unfortunate truth is that there is no magic bullet: proper attribution of dark social requires rigorous campaign tracking. The optimal approach will vary greatly based on your industry, audience, proposition, and so on. For many websites, however, a good first step is to provide convenient and properly configured sharing buttons for private platforms like email, WhatsApp, and Slack, thereby ensuring that users share URLs appended with UTM parameters (or vanity/shortened URLs which redirect to the same). This will go some way towards shining a light on <em>part</em> of your dark social traffic.
</p><h2>Checklist: Minimizing direct traffic</h2><p>To summarize what we’ve already discussed, here are the steps you can take to minimize the level of unnecessary direct traffic in your reports:
</p><ol>
<li><strong>Migrate to HTTPS: </strong>Not only is the secure protocol your gateway to HTTP/2 and the future of the web, it will also have an enormously positive effect on your ability to track referral traffic.</li>
<li><strong>Manage your use of redirects:</strong> Avoid chains and eliminate client-side redirection in favour of carefully-mapped, single-hop, server-side 301s. If you use vanity URLs to redirect to pages with UTM parameters, be meticulous.</li>
<li><strong>Get really good at campaign tagging:</strong> Even amongst data-driven marketers I encounter the belief that UTM begins and ends with switching on automatic tagging in your email marketing software. Others go to the other extreme, doing silly things like tagging internal links. Control what you can, and your ability to carry out meaningful attribution will markedly improve.</li>
<li><strong>Conduct an Analytics audit: </strong>Data integrity is vital, so consider this essential when assessing the success of your marketing. It’s not simply a case of checking for missing track code: good audits involve a review of your measurement plan and rigorous testing at page and property-level.</li>
</ol><p>Adhere to these principles, and it’s often possible to achieve a dramatic reduction in the level of direct traffic reported in Analytics. The following example involved an HTTPS migration, GTM migration (as part of an Analytics review), and an overhaul of internal campaign tracking processes over the course of about 6 months:
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7892938f9.72562485.png">
</p><p>But the saga of direct traffic doesn’t end there! Once this channel is “clean” — that is, once you’ve minimized the number of avoidable pollutants — what remains might actually be one of your most valuable traffic segments.
</p><h2>Analyze! Or: why direct traffic can actually be pretty cool</h2><p>For reasons we’ve already discussed, traffic from bookmarks and dark social is an enormously valuable segment to analyze. These are likely to be some of your most loyal and engaged users, and it’s not uncommon to see a notably higher conversion rate for a clean direct channel compared to the site average. You should make the effort to get to know them.
</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7898e1021.58268901.png">
</p><p>The number of potential avenues to explore is infinite, but here are some good starting points:
</p><ul>
<li>Build meaningful custom segments, defining a subset of your direct traffic based on their landing page, location, device, repeat visit or purchase behavior, or even enhanced e-commerce interactions.</li>
<li>Track meaningful engagement metrics using modern GTM triggers such as <a href="https://builtvisible.com/tracking-element-visibility-with-gtm/" target="_blank">element visibility and native scroll tracking</a>. Measure <em>how</em> your direct users are using and viewing your content.</li>
<li>Watch for correlations with your other marketing activities, and use it as an opportunity to refine your tagging practices and segment definitions. Create a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033021?hl=en" target="_blank">custom alert</a> which watches for spikes in direct traffic.</li>
<li>Familiarize yourself with flow reports to get an understanding of how your direct traffic is converting. By using Goal Flow and Behavior Flow reports with segmentation, it’s often possible to glean actionable insights which can be applied to the site as a whole.</li>
<li>Ask your users for help! If you’ve isolated a valuable segment of traffic which eludes deeper analysis, add a button to the page offering visitors a free downloadable ebook if they tell you how they discovered your page.</li>
<li>Start thinking about lifetime value, if you haven’t already — overhauling your attribution model or implementing <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3123662?hl=en" target="_blank">User ID</a> are good steps towards overcoming the indifference or frustration felt by marketers towards direct traffic.</li>
</ul><p>I hope this guide has been useful. With any luck, you arrived looking for ways to reduce the level of direct traffic in your reports, and left with some new ideas for how to better analyze this valuable segment of users.
</p><p>Thanks for reading!
</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feedpress.me/9375/7556172.gif" height="1" width="1"/>Wed, 29 Nov 2017 00:05:00 GMThttps://moz.com/blog/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analyticstombennet2017-11-29T00:05:00ZMonthly Income, Growth & Traffic Report – October 2017http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/2Ijq6wAAxkU/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-october-2017/feed/0https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-october-2017/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/GKt__I1-bl0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ti20Xo5UIdc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/sQopcw90Kqg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/50LqpWB7DU4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/e4uvLyPDQhQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Z8hpJedRVJo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/i0sThRCLfK0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/lhDoBpui6-k/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ggGFOzNZxvc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ZAFcIRb2Kqg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/lRpOLSVgMkU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/AP7OUWiBdVI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/QxHDGogTjWs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/qwOjk8dUNDo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Qy2rBWSsT4E/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/F2baZ-8DnZU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/kYmKfKCnG7M/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/8U0sr34cT7o/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/UlI9L-0FBnc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/j1XJSxiZDro/<p>This is the 61st income report as part of the zero backlink experiment. Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there. These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do. What I Have Done In October The first week of October was all about open cart week for my product. But: It really didn&#8217;t go smoothly &#8211; in fact, if it could have gone wrong ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-october-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – October 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>This is the 61st <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-reports/" target="_blank">income report</a> as part of the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/google-webmaster-guidelines-experiment/" target="_blank">zero backlink experiment</a>.</p>
<p>Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there.</p>
<p>These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do.</p>
<h2>What I Have Done In October</h2>
<p>The first week of October was all about open cart week for my product.</p>
<p>But:</p>
<p>It really didn&#8217;t go smoothly &#8211; in fact, if it could have gone wrong &#8211; it did go wrong.</p>
<h2>When Natural Disaster Strikes</h2>
<p>Over the past few months I have being preparing for the JV launch of my product.</p>
<p>Everything was going great &#8211; that was until I opened the cart for sales on Monday and was struck by Hurricane Nate shortly after-</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M_lXyNzFA1I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>That left me with without mobile service, internet, electric and water nearly immediately after opening the cart for the launch.</p>
<p>So for the first 4 days of my 5 days of sales, I had absolutely no internet access what so ever. </p>
<p>Luckily I had already scheduled all of the launch emails BUT I was unable to respond to comments/questions and more importantly react to problems.</p>
<p><strong>Problems like PayPal automatically reversing all payments to the tune of $40,000.</strong></p>
<p>On the last day I managed to get back online and spent the entire weekend fixing problems, responding to people and trying my best to recover lost sales.</p>
<p>Honestly there was nothing more I could have done to prepare for the situation &#8211; with no electric, internet or mobile service I was at the mercy of the hurricane.</p>
<h2>Moved To HTTPS</h2>
<p>If you didn&#8217;t know already, Google made a significant change to Chrome this month that means if your site is NOT running HTTPS &#8211; it will be flagged as &#8216;not secure&#8217; during form fills.</p>
<p>This is a huge trust problem and if you haven&#8217;t made the switch to HTTPS yet I highly recommend that you do it as soon as possible.</p>
<p>ESPECIALLY if you have any kind of form on your site like email sign up forms, contact forms, comment forms and more.</p>
<p>Take a look at an example of the ugly warnings below-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/http-search.gif" alt="" width="618" height="453" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49996" /></p>
<p>So what are you waiting for? Get it done NOW!</p>
<h3>How To Migrate To HTTPS</h3>
<p>Luckily for me activating HTTPS on the blog was as easy as a click of a button with <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kinsta/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Kinsta">Kinsta</a> and came at no additional cost.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kinsta/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Kinsta"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Screenshot_110217_085945_AM.jpg" alt="enable https" width="292" height="257" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49998" /></a></p>
<p>But not everyone is in the same boat as me.</p>
<p>Given the usual complexitys of moving to HTTPS and the risks of getting wrong, I <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/wpmatic/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="highly recommend you get a professional">highly recommend you get a professional</a> to do it.</p>
<p>It should cost you around $50-$100 and the benefits of moving to HTTPS are far to strong to ignore now.</p>
<h2>Content Creation</h2>
<p>This month I published and updated 4 posts including the income report.</p>
<p>We started off with my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">incredible internal link building strategy</a> which also shows you just how powerful internal links are when used correctly.</p>
<p>Then I updated my post <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">about making quick money with surveys</a> with some new insights and also results of my own earnings.</p>
<p>Last but not least I shared <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">21x IFTTT recipes for SEO, bloggers &#038; digital marketers</a>!</p>
<h2>Crunching The Numbers</h2>
<p>So let&#8217;s get our hands dirty and see how the blog has actually performed this month.</p>
<h3>Visitor Statistics</h3>
<p>Last month traffic jumped to 72,072 (2,402/day) due to a huge increase in Facebook spend but this month it settled down to 65,852 (2,124/day).</p>
<p>That is still above my minimum target of 60,000 per month although it would be nice to hit 70,000 per month consistently!</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-overview-618x316.png" alt="" width="618" height="316" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-50006" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-overview-618x316.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-overview-897x459.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-overview.png 1177w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Most Popular Content</h3>
<p>There was one piece of content that stood head and shoulders above the rest this month.</p>
<p>And that was <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">my internal linking guide</a> which absolutely dominated the top 10 content this month.</p>
<p>Far far far behind it in second place was my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">making money on Fiverr</a> tutorial shortly followed by <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/expired-domains/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">my expired domains guide</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-top-content-618x344.png" alt="" width="618" height="344" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-50007" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-top-content-618x344.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-top-content-897x499.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-top-content.png 955w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Top Traffic Sources</h3>
<p>Not much has changed in traffic sources with a good mix of traffic coming from Google organic and social sources.</p>
<p>An interesting note, I saw a huge leap in YouTube traffic the past months AFTER deleting YouTube Cards I had previously setup.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic.png" alt="" width="863" height="582" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49745" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic.png 863w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic-618x417.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" /></p>
<h3>Search Engine Traffic</h3>
<p>Last month search increased slightly to 43,483 (1,449/day) which has continued to increase this month to 46,972 (1,515/day).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-keywords-618x440.png" alt="" width="618" height="440" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-50008" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-keywords-618x440.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-keywords.png 873w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>YouTube Views</h3>
<p>I lost all of my historical YouTube views because of changes I made to the branding &#8211; so I keep track of them separately. </p>
<p>YouTube views increased every so slightly from 12,346 to 12,440 this month.</p>
<p>Total minutes watch also increased to 55,994!</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-youtube-618x649.png" alt="" width="618" height="649" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-50009" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-youtube-618x649.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/oct-youtube.png 873w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Social Shares</h3>
<p>I am having a problem with Google+ data today, I will come back and update this section.</p>
<p>This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 85,635 to 89,866.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/108557308721097082569/posts" target="_blank"><strong>Google+</strong></a> &#8211; 27,981 (27,673 last month)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MatthewWoodward.co.uk" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a> &#8211; 61,885 (57,962 last month)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Subscribers</h3>
<p>The most important metric on the entire blog &#8211; earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.</p>
<p>There are now a total of 131,550 subscribers across all of the various channels compared to last months 130,333!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>E-mail</strong> &#8211; 633 (8,207 last month) / Total: 63,588</li>
<li><strong>Twitter</strong> &#8211; 129 (320 last month) / Total: 17,013</li>
<li><strong>YouTube</strong> &#8211; 89 (184 last month) / Total: 15,140</li>
<li><strong>Facebook</strong> &#8211; 3,684 (3,684 last month) / Total: 31,231</li>
<li><strong>Google+</strong> &#8211; -46 (-4 last month) / Total: 17,777</li>
<li><strong>RSS</strong> &#8211; 7 (7 last month) / Total: 547</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Income Report</h2>
<p>Here are the numbers you really want to see-</p>
<p><strong>Affiliate Earnings</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/A2Hosting" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">A2Hosting</a></strong> &#8211; $85.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ActiveCampaign" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ActiveCampaign</a></strong> &#8211; $9.20</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ahrefs</a></strong> &#8211; $272.88 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/ahrefs-majestic-seo-1-million-domain-showdown/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aweber</a></strong> &#8211; $97.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/advertise-on-the-blog/" target="_blank">Blog Advertising</a></strong> &#8211; $965.48 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/advertise-on-the-blog/" target="_blank">Advertise</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/bluechipbacklinks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blue Chip Backlinks</a></strong> &#8211; $350.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/blue-host/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlueHost</a></strong> &#8211; $65.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Brightspark/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brightspark</a></strong> &#8211; $15.60</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/BuyProxies" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BuyProxies</a></strong> &#8211; $29.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/CheapWindowsVPS/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CheapWindowsVPS</a></strong> &#8211; $1.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/CloudBoss/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CloudBoss</a></strong> &#8211; $31.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cmscommander/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CMS Commander</a></strong> &#8211; $10.80</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ConvertKit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ConvertKit</a></strong> &#8211; $333.28</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/domainhuntergatherer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Domain Hunter Gatherer</a></strong> &#8211; $658.97 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/expired-domains/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip</a></strong> &#8211; $438.60</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/driprevolution/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip Revolution</a></strong> &#8211; $177.55 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/driprevolution-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/EasyBlogNetworks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">EasyBlogNetworks</a></strong> &#8211; $176.64</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/fcsnetworker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FCS Networker</a></strong> &#8211; $116.98 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/fcs-networker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/freshdrop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FreshDrop</a></strong> &#8211; $34.94</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GetResponse</a></strong> &#8211; $21.12 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Gleam/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gleam</a></strong> &#8211; $20.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/gsacaptchabreaker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA Captcha Breaker</a></strong> &#8211; $744.25 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/gsa-captcha-breaker/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/gsa-captcha-breaker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/GSASearchEngineRanker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA Search Engine Ranker</a></strong> &#8211; $980.77 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/gsa-search-engine-ranker-review-tutorial/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/gsa-search-engine-ranker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/GSASEOIndexer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA SEO Indexer</a></strong> &#8211; $94.95</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Indexification/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Indexification</a></strong> &#8211; $3.33</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ip-vanish/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IPVanish</a></strong> &#8211; $188.21</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/KeywordResearcher/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KeywordResearcher</a></strong> &#8211; $3.73</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kontentmachine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kontent Machine</a></strong> &#8211; $304.75 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/kontent-machine-review-generate-unlimited-unique-content/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/LinkEmperor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkEmperor</a></strong> &#8211; $185.51</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/longtailpro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LongTailPro</a></strong> &#8211; $800.16 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/long-tail-pro-keyword-research-tool/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/longtailpro-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/MintVine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MintVine</a></strong> &#8211; $21.99</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/apply-now/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MTTB</a></strong> &#8211; $44.10</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/MyThemeShop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MyThemeShop</a></strong> &#8211; $249.48</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/OIOPublisher/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OIOPublisher</a></strong> &#8211; $23.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/onehourindexing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OneHourIndexing</a></strong> &#8211; $248.74 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/index-backlinks-easily-revealing-case-study-results/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/pandabot/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PandaBot</a></strong> &#8211; $96.60 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/rank-website-fake-usage-metrics-no-backlinks-required/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PBNPremium/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PBNPremium</a></strong> &#8211; $44.90</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PowerUpHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PowerUpHosting</a></strong> &#8211; 15.89</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/privateinternetaccess/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrivateInternetAccess</a></strong> &#8211; $6.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PrizeRebel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrizeRebel</a></strong> &#8211; $35.35 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ProductLaunchFormula/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ProductLaunchFormula</a></strong> &#8211; $158.80</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/raven/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raven Tools</a></strong> &#8211; $10.14 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/backlink-checkers-compared-ahrefs-majestic-seo-seomoz-raven-tools-seo-spyglass/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/semrush/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEMRush</a></strong> &#8211; $705.38 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/semrush/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/seocontentmachine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Content Machine</a></strong> &#8211; $53.73 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/seo-content-machine-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOPowerSuite" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Powersuite</a></strong> &#8211; $110.28 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/seo-powersuite-review-essential-seo-tools/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOClerks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Clerks</a></strong> &#8211; $72.70</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOMonitor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Monitor</a></strong> &#8211; $245.08</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serpbook/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERP Book</a></strong> &#8211; $14.16</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serped/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERPed</a></strong> &#8211; $1,460.52 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/serped/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/siteground/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Siteground</a></strong> &#8211; $150.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SwagBucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SwagBucks</a></strong> &#8211; $4.10</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TBSolutions/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TBSolutions</a></strong> &#8211; $35.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TBS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TheBestSpinner</a></strong> &#8211; $154.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/advanced-article-spinning-techniques-with-the-best-spinner/" target="_blank">tutorial</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/thebestspinner-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ThirstyAffiliates/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ThirstyAffiliates</a></strong> &#8211; $12.78</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TrafficPlanetHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TrafficPlanetHosting</a></strong> &#8211; $70.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TweetAttacksPro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TweetAttacksPro</a></strong> &#8211; $72.95 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/double-twitter-traffic/" target="_blank">case study</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/tweetattackspro-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">URLProfiler</a></strong> &#8211; $59.34 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/urlprofiler-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/videomakerfx/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VideoMakerFX</a></strong> &#8211; $64.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/wordaitrial/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WordAI</a></strong> &#8211; $29.97</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Expenses</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kinsta/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kinsta Hosting</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip</a></strong> &#8211; $400.50</li>
<li><strong>Facebook Advertising</strong> &#8211; $3,094.63 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/facebook-advertising-lead-generation/" target="_blank">Case Study</a>)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Consultation Earnings</h3>
<p>I separate out the consultation earnings from the affiliate earnings. The blog drives affiliate sales directly and whilst it does generate consultation leads these are separate projects in their own right.</p>
<p>This month I didn&#8217;t taken on any consultation work so made a grand total of nothing!</p>
<h3>Other Income</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m working on another project right now that is part of the blog but not something I&#8217;m ready to talk about publicly yet or maybe ever. </p>
<p>I will declare the income here though as it wouldn&#8217;t be possible without the blog and &#8216;technically&#8217; it is affiliate income.</p>
<p>Last month this was $12,177.37 which saw a comfortable increase to $13,386.53 this month.</p>
<h4>Earnings Total</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Affiliate Income</strong> &#8211; $11,487.12</li>
<li><strong>Consultation Income</strong> &#8211; $00.00</li>
<li><strong>Other Income</strong> &#8211; $13,386.53</li>
<li><strong>Expenses</strong> &#8211; $3,595.13</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Grand Total:</strong> <u>$21,278.58 / £16,254.71</u> ($24,039.88 / £18,183.77 last month) </p>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Signing Off</h2>
<p>October was a wild month to say the least with Hurricane Nate taking me out during the most critical 5 days of the year.</p>
<p>Although I haven&#8217;t reported the income from the product launch here, let me tell you that despite the problems &#8211; it still made a lot of money.</p>
<p>I never thought I would ever make a lot of money and be disappointed but here we are.</p>
<p>Over the next month I am working on some key improvements to the blog including flying to Miami next week to upgrade my video setup.</p>
<p>I have already prepared a huge &#8220;cornerstone&#8221; piece of content that will be launched when the first video from my new setup is ready.</p>
<p>Stay tuned folks &#8211; exciting times ahead!</p>
<p><strong>Thank you again to everyone that has supported the blog over the years &#8211; you guys are amazing!</strong></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-october-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – October 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/GKt__I1-bl0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ti20Xo5UIdc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/sQopcw90Kqg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/50LqpWB7DU4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/e4uvLyPDQhQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Z8hpJedRVJo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/i0sThRCLfK0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/lhDoBpui6-k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ggGFOzNZxvc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ZAFcIRb2Kqg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/lRpOLSVgMkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/AP7OUWiBdVI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/QxHDGogTjWs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/qwOjk8dUNDo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Qy2rBWSsT4E" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/F2baZ-8DnZU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/kYmKfKCnG7M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/8U0sr34cT7o" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/UlI9L-0FBnc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/j1XJSxiZDro" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/2Ijq6wAAxkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Income ReportThu, 02 Nov 2017 16:00:48 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-october-2017/#respondhttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=49985Matthew Woodward2017-11-02T16:00:48Z21x IFTTT Recipes For SEO, Bloggers & Digital Marketershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/MQRmvGxl9sg/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/feed/69https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/6m1dXWJNQVQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/E2Bu8B-IrU8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ZdHXB-ggGzg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/kbQEEJXrs4M/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/2nD51JripPc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/QJQlBdW9mZY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/K6ZrGpuXgUA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Z2JAX6h8vMs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/VvokckSQiTM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/8LNpoFFCT8g/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/na2bxT_fXkU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ReKSthXEex8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/sUD1JX58MZ8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/mYI5oosp2rI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/jhrq3TfPCd8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/9ZXUy34DOb8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/tdSEsGUSzt4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/4IKUjxrCYCk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ZkhzwXiD3Lo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/X8tRuhqcmro/<p>Do you wish you could have more time without spending hundreds of dollars on outsourcing? That all of those little tasks could just be taken care of, and you didn’t need to worry about any of them any more. Well if that sounds like you, you’re in luck. If This Then That allows you to take lots of your daily tasks and automate them, completely, for free. No strings attached. Making your life as a digital marketer much easier. Since finding the tool years ago it’s become one of the main components of my everyday life. And now, I want ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/">21x IFTTT Recipes For SEO, Bloggers &#038; Digital Marketers</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Do you wish you could have more time without spending hundreds of dollars on outsourcing?</p>
<p>That all of those little tasks could just be taken care of, and you didn’t need to worry about any of them any more.</p>
<p>Well if that sounds like you, you’re in luck.</p>
<p><em>If This Then That</em> allows you to take lots of your daily tasks and automate them, completely, for free. No strings attached. Making your life as a digital marketer much easier.</p>
<p>Since finding the tool years ago it’s become one of the main components of my everyday life. And now, I want to share with you how <em>you</em> can use it too.</p>
<p>So if you’re interested in having more time and less worry, the free tools in this article are for you!</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>What is IFTTT and why should you care?</li>
<li>The IFTTT recipes I use to run a 7 figure blog and 10x my productivity</li>
<li>How to use IFTTT for marketing success</li>
<li>The best IFTTT recipes for SEO, Bloggers &#038; Digital Marketers</li>
</ul>
<p>Everything in this article is focused on helping <em>you</em> as a digital marketer &#8211; be it in content, SEO or elsewhere &#8211; make your life a whole lot easier.</p>
<h2>What Is IFTTT?</h2>
<p>IFTTT stands for <em>If This Then That</em> and it’s a completely free way to make you more productive and time efficient by automating some of the most mundane parts of your business.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48556" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applets-897x577.png" alt="ifttt recipes" width="897" height="577" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applets-897x577.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applets-618x397.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>The tool uses <em>Recipes</em> (also known as Applets) to connect different apps and tools to create workflows. Think of them like a chain reaction; when you take an action in one tool, another happens in the tool that it’s linked to.</p>
<p>For example if you were to active this Recipe, every time you used a specific hashtag on Twitter, like <em>#work</em>, that tweet would directly post to Facebook:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-48557" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applettwitter.png" alt="ifttt twitter recipe" width="350" height="405" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applettwitter.png 639w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt1applettwitter-618x715.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px" /></p>
<p>While this may only seem like a few seconds, it’s one of those tasks that have a positive impact on your entire workload after a few uses. And if you combine 10 to 15 of these across your workload the time savings really come into play.</p>
<p>The amount of tools that can be combined, for lots of different purposes, is almost limitless and applies to all industries and niches.</p>
<p>Just off the top of my head you can use Recipes for: Google Docs, Evernote, Pocket, Gmail, WordPress, YouTube, Medium, ESPN, The New York Times and all social media channels. And that’s really just scratching the surface.</p>
<p>This means you never have to repeat a repetitive task that you don’t want to. So, <strong>think of it like free outsourcing for the tasks you hate</strong>.</p>
<h2>The IFTTT Recipes I Use To Run A 7-Figure Blog</h2>
<p>If there’s one lesson I’ve learned over the years it’s this:</p>
<p>The <strong>bigger</strong> your blog the <strong>harder</strong> it is to remain productive.</p>
<p>You’re constantly bombarded with new and different time sucks that drain your energy and pull you in lots of different directions. So, I’ve been using IFTTT to help alleviate a lot of that stress.</p>
<p>In this section I want to show you the true potential of IFTTT by sharing with you the IFTTT recipes I use to automate my day-to-day marketing activities.</p>
<h3>RSS Feed + Evernote = Automatically Curated Content</h3>
<p>Every month I published an <em>Income Report Roundup</em> from various bloggers that have been tracking their income process. But what you probably don’t realise is that I don’t do <em>any</em> of the research for that.</p>
<p>Instead it’s all handled by an Recipe that delivers the information I need directly to my Evernote at the end of every month.</p>
<p>To do this I create an <em>If This</em> that states when a new article is added to my RSS feed with the keywords <em>Income Roundup</em> it triggers the process:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_103017_083555_AM.jpg" alt="my income report roundup ifttt recipe" width="450" height="597" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49960" /></p>
<p>I then connect it to my Evernote to create a note with links to all of the relevant articles that gets delivered to me at the end of the month.</p>
<p>Meaning I save literal <em>hours</em> trying to find content with the relevant information.</p>
<h3>WordPress + Evernote = Backup Blog Posts</h3>
<p>It’s important to have backup copies of your blog posts. In the case anything goes south with your site, or hackers deleting all of your content, you should always have a fallback option.</p>
<p>For me this is using IFTTT to save my latest posts on WordPress to my Evernote database.</p>
<p>The first step is to connect up your WordPress account to IFTTT, and then select the <em>New blog post</em> trigger.</p>
<p>After that all you have to do is connect your Evernote account and have it save automatically once it goes live. Giving you a backup copy of your posts without any extra work at all.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_103017_083851_AM-618x100.jpg" alt="backup your blog with ifttt" width="618" height="100" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49961" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_103017_083851_AM-618x100.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_103017_083851_AM-897x145.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_103017_083851_AM.jpg 996w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>Luckily for you that comes as a pre-made Recipe that you can set up in just a few seconds <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/1306p-archive-wordpress-posts-to-evernote">right here</a>.</p>
<h3>RSS Feed + Email/Text = First Comment Exposure</h3>
<p>Blog Commenting may not give you the <em>best</em> return from SEO, but it does give you an excellent opportunity to get your site some much needed exposure.</p>
<p><strong>The best way to do this is by being one of the first comment on a new post.</strong></p>
<p>To do this is simple. First head to the site you want to comment on and at the end of their URL type /feed/. For example:</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nomadicmatt.com/feed/">www.nomadicmatt.com/feed/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.fluentin3months.com/feed/">www.fluentin3months.com/feed/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.deutschified.com/feed/">www.deutschified.com/feed</a><br />
<a href="http://www.expertvagabond.com/feed/">www.expertvagabond.com/feed/</a></p>
<p>Then you add that URL to the RSS feed as the <em>If This</em> trigger. It’s worth checking the site actually has the RSS feed before you do that, mind you.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-48560" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt4firstcomment-897x753.png" alt="best IFTTT recipe for blog comments" width="418" height="351" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt4firstcomment-897x753.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt4firstcomment-618x519.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt4firstcomment.png 1519w" sizes="(max-width: 418px) 100vw, 418px" /></p>
<p>Depending on the importance of the site you can set this up to either email you instantly, or to text directly to your phone.</p>
<p>When there is a big, high traffic site I get a text directly to my phone so I can jump on and capitalise no matter where I am. But if it’s a middle of the road site I’ll get an email update and see to it as soon as I get chance.</p>
<h3>Competitor Emails + Evernote = Deep Competitor Insights</h3>
<p>In the blogosphere email marketing is <em>super</em> important. It’s at the backbone of every sale, every interaction and it’s where I make a lot of my money.</p>
<p>The same goes for your competition.</p>
<p>That means if you can study their emails you’re able to see <em>exactly</em> who they’re targeting, what they’re promoting and how you can steal some of their ideas.</p>
<p>This also serves to make you aware of affiliate options, copywriting lessons and when your competitors are about to make a large sales push.</p>
<p>To set this up, choose your email client as the <em>If This</em> trigger and choose the <em>New email in inbox from</em> option:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48561" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt5emailcompetitors-897x385.png" alt="competitors email" width="897" height="385" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt5emailcompetitors-897x385.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt5emailcompetitors-618x265.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Enter the email address that they use to send promotional emails:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-48562" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt6emailtriggger-897x819.png" alt="how to setup the ifttt recipe" width="447" height="408" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt6emailtriggger-897x819.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt6emailtriggger-618x564.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/iftt6emailtriggger.png 1301w" sizes="(max-width: 447px) 100vw, 447px" /></p>
<p>And then use Evernote as the <em>Then that</em> trigger to have these emails archive themselves directly into the app.</p>
<p>You could even log everything into a Google Spreadsheet so you have a database of relevant marketing emails to search at a moments notice ;)</p>
<h2>IFTTT Tutorial: How To Use IFTTT</h2>
<p>Learning how to use IFTTT is really easy!</p>
<p>You have two options when you’re using IFTTT; you can either use pre-made Recipes from developers, or you can create your own.</p>
<p>In my IFTTT tutorial I’ll show you how to create a tailor made Recipe to make your workday more productive.</p>
<p>Firstly to create your own Recipes you need to go to <a href="https://ifttt.com/create">this link here</a>, which will show you a screen like this:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48563" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt7newapplet-897x362.png" alt="how to use IFTTT" width="897" height="362" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt7newapplet-897x362.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt7newapplet-618x249.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>What you’re going to do first is create the <em>if this</em> and then the <em>then that</em> portions of this by connecting two tools.</p>
<p>Let’s say you want to take a <strong>specific</strong> action every day that you keep forgetting about. Well, you can create an IFTTT Applet that will send you a reminder every day.</p>
<p>Firstly click on the <em><strong>+ this</strong></em> section of the text and choose the date and time service:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48564" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt8chooseaservice-897x475.png" alt="choose a service" width="897" height="475" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt8chooseaservice-897x475.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt8chooseaservice-618x327.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt8chooseaservice-301x158.png 301w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You’ll then be able to choose the event that happens to trigger this process. For this example I’m going to go for <em>Every day at</em>.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48565" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt9choosetrigger-897x518.png" alt="choose a trigger" width="897" height="518" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt9choosetrigger-897x518.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt9choosetrigger-618x357.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>I can then set the specific time that I want to process to be triggered at:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-48566" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt10triggersetup-897x593.png" alt="choose a schedile" width="613" height="405" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt10triggersetup-897x593.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt10triggersetup-618x408.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px" /></p>
<p>So as of 09:00 every morning this <em>IFTTT</em> will be triggered to take an action. But, what action is that going to be? Well that brings me to the next step…</p>
<p>You’re not going to need to click the <strong><em>+ that</em></strong> section of the text:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48567" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt11that-897x159.png" alt="nearly done" width="897" height="159" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt11that-897x159.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt11that-618x110.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>And from the tools list you can choose where you want to be reminded. For me, email is always the best place for me to get a reminder, so I’m going to link this to my Gmail account.</p>
<p>But you could set it up to send you an SMS, a new note in Evernote, an alert on your calendar or any number of places that your attention will be focused.</p>
<p>On the next page I’ll select the action I want to take, in this case send me an email:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48568" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt12choseaction-897x337.png" alt="choose your email" width="897" height="337" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt12choseaction-897x337.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt12choseaction-618x232.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Then I can fill out the detail I want to receive. For this example let’s go for following up emails that I’ve sent out that need following up.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter wp-image-48569" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt13actionsettings-897x1203.png" alt="setup the settings" width="398" height="533" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt13actionsettings-897x1203.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt13actionsettings-618x829.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt13actionsettings.png 1028w" sizes="(max-width: 398px) 100vw, 398px" /></p>
<p>Hit <em>Create action</em> and there you have it. The next time 09:00 rolls around I’ll get a lovely little reminder in my inbox.</p>
<p>This is a simple example but the system is exactly the same for <em>any</em> Applet or process that you want to create. If you find an inefficiency that can be fixed, you can probably create a solution for it here.</p>
<p>But, if you don’t want to create your own Recipes, you can always use the pre-made Recipes people are already using&#8230;</p>
<h2>The Best IFTTT Recipes For SEO, Bloggers &#038; Digital Marketers</h2>
<p>If you’re not sure <em>what</em> Recipes to make, or just don’t have the time or energy to do it yourself, you’re in luck.</p>
<p>Lots of people go out of their way to create and share their own personal Recipes and you can access them at the click of a button. Meaning you can maximise your productivity in just a few minutes.</p>
<p>In this section I’m going to share the 21 best IFTTT recipes for you to choose from. All you have to do is click the link, connect your accounts, and you’re ready to save time and effort.</p>
<p>Also, if any of these give you an idea for your own Recipe, you can just take the base recipe and use it to create your own in the future.</p>
<h3>01: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/331572p-create-a-medium-story-from-your-wordpress-post">Create A Medium Story From Your WordPress Post</a></h3>
<p>Sharing your posts on Medium allows you to get an extra set of eyes on your posts and drive traffic back to your site.</p>
<p>And now you don’t need to go through the process of formatting the same post twice. This Recipe automatically posts your new articles to Medium in real time.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/331572p-create-a-medium-story-from-your-wordpress-post">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>02: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/119217p-email-brand-mentions-to-gmail">Monitor Brand Mentions</a></h3>
<p>With this Recipe you can receive an email every time your brand gets mentioned on the internet. Helping you find link building and partnership opportunities without putting in any work.</p>
<p>Simply head over to <a href="http://www.socialmention.com/">Social Mention</a>, enter your keyword, and take the link from the RSS Feed.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-48570" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt14socialmention-897x88.png" alt="IFTTT tutorial for social mentions" width="897" height="88" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt14socialmention-897x88.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ifttt14socialmention-618x60.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Then take the link and add it into the Recipe. Now, once you get mentioned, you’ll get it delivered right to your inbox.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/119217p-email-brand-mentions-to-gmail">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>03: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/263181p-email-alerts-for-wikipedia-page-updates">Email Alerts For Wikipedia Page Updates</a></h3>
<p>Wikipedia is still a great source of building links. So, why not get updates when a page is being updated to show dead links, citations needed or other updates you can cash in on?</p>
<p>Simple change the slug of this Recipe to fit the page you want (that’s the bit in bold: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_optimization">https://en.wikipedia.org<strong>/wiki/Search_engine_optimization</strong></a>) and you’ll get an update delivered straight to you.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/263181p-email-alerts-for-wikipedia-page-updates">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>04: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/159309p-save-popular-posts-from-r-todayilearned-in-pocket">Save Popular Posts From /TodayIlearned</a></h3>
<p>Mining for content ideas can be hard work. So, how about getting them stored in your Pocket account instead?</p>
<p>The Reddit forum <em>Today I Learned [tk]</em> can be a great place to find useful information to use in blog posts and create topics around. All you have to do is check in on your pocket when it comes time to have an idea.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/159309p-save-popular-posts-from-r-todayilearned-in-pocket">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>05: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/304530p-get-a-digest-with-every-top-seo-post-on-reddit">Get A Reddit Digest Of Every Top SEO Post</a></h3>
<p>If you’re learning about SEO, or you’re in the niche, you can get every top performing article delivered right to your inbox as a digest.</p>
<p>Meaning you can create a reading list, curate content for roundups or get instant access to new and successful techniques.</p>
<p>You could theoretically change the <em>SEO</em> for whatever niche you’re working in too.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/304530p-get-a-digest-with-every-top-seo-post-on-reddit">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>06: <a href="https://ifttt.com/view_embed_recipe/236507-if-someone-comments-on-a-blog-post-then-send-a-sms-text-message">If Someone Comments On Your Post Receive It As A Text</a></h3>
<p>Engaging with people is really important. But, it’s easy to miss comments when you’re trying to be active in multiple places.</p>
<p>So, if you’re commenting on a site that has an available RSS feed, you can add the link to IFTTT and have them send you a text as soon as they comment.</p>
<p>Meaning you can engage in real time, solve problems and create meaningful interactions without overlooking anybody.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/236507p-if-someone-comments-on-a-blog-post-then-send-a-sms-text-message">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>07: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/111671p-save-feedly-post-titles-to-google-drive">Save Feedly Post Titles To Google Drive</a></h3>
<p>If you have a premium Feedly account this is a great Recipe to take advantage of.</p>
<p>It pulls the headlines of all of the articles that show up in your feeds and saves them to a Google Spreadsheet. Why?</p>
<p>Well it allows you to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Track and monitor trending topics</li>
<li>See high performing headlines and improve your copywriting</li>
<li>See consistent content that your competitors are creating</li>
<li>Generate content ideas for your own blog</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s a super simple idea that comes with lots and lots of benefits.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/111671p-save-feedly-post-titles-to-google-drive">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>08: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/299812p-when-you-create-a-new-trello-card-add-an-event-to-google-calendar">Turn Trello Card Into Google Calendar Event</a></h3>
<p>If you’re creating a content schedule and using Trello, this is a really invaluable Recipe to use.</p>
<p>Whenever you create a Trello card and assign a date or time, it will automatically be added to your Google Calendar and send you an update as the time comes closer.<br />
This allows you to create a consistent posting schedule <em>and</em> never miss a deadline. Cool, right?</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/299812p-when-you-create-a-new-trello-card-add-an-event-to-google-calendar">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>09: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/212531p-archive-every-time-you-re-mentioned-to-a-google-spreadsheet">Archive Every Time You’re Mentioned To A Google Spreadsheet</a></h3>
<p>Want to keep track of who’s talking about you in Twitter, and what they’re saying? This Recipe lets you do all of that in one tidy Google spreadsheet.</p>
<p>By following your Twitter handle or a hashtag you’re able to get each tweet that mentions those keywords stored automatically. Allowing you to track conversations and monitor your brand image.</p>
<p>It also gives you lots of opportunity to find new, interested, people to interact with.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/212531p-archive-every-time-you-re-mentioned-to-a-google-spreadsheet">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>10-14: Share New WordPress Posts To Social Media</h3>
<p>Keep forgetting to share your posts on social media? Don’t worry, this solution is for you.</p>
<p>As soon as you hit the <em>Publish</em> button on WordPress your post will instantly go live on your social channels. Letting your fans get their dose of your content as soon as it’s ready.</p>
<p>Just click any of the links below to access that Recipe:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/10336p-share-new-wordpress-posts-to-a-facebook-page">Share from WordPress to Facebook</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/599p-tweet-my-wordpress-blog-posts">Share from WordPress to Twitter</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/3562p-share-new-wordpress-posts-on-linkedin">Share from WordPress to LinkedIn</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/306357p-pin-your-new-wordpress-posts-to-a-pinterest-board">Share from WordPress to Pinterest</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>15: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/103249p-tweet-your-instagrams-as-native-photos-on-twitter">Tweet Your Instagram Images As Twitter Native</a></h3>
<p>Share your latest Instagram updates directly to Twitter with this simple Recipe. That way you can keep up with multiple channels while using as few as possible.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center;">&#62;&#62;&#62; <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/103249p-tweet-your-instagrams-as-native-photos-on-twitter">Get This Recipe Here</a> &#60;&#60;&#60;</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>16: <a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/113241p-save-the-tweets-you-like-on-twitter-to-a-google-spreadsheet">Save The Tweets You Like To A Google Spreadsheet</a></h3>
<p>One of the best ways to find new content (and marketing ideas) is to scratch your own itch and see what you like.</p>
<p>This IFTTT Recipe takes every tweet you like and puts it into a Google spreadsheet for you to look at a later date.</p>
<p>You can then ask yourself:</p>
<ul>
<li>Why did I like this Tweet?</li>
<li>What can I use from it?</li>
<li>Is there content that I can create from it?</li>
</ul>
<p>And give yourself a good understand of what makes you &#8211; and potentially your audience &#8211; tick.</p>
<h3>18-21: BackUp All WordPress Blog Posts</h3>
<p>You can never have too many backups of your work. Anyone who has ever lost thousands of words and never been able to retrieve them will tell you that.</p>
<p>But luckily you can now save all of your finalised WordPress posts the minute that you publish them. Meaning you never have to worry about losing all of your content again.</p>
<p>I’d recommend using two or three of these to make sure you’re covered, or just connect it to your favourite tool:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/279081p-wordpress-to-dropbox">WordPress to Dropbox</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/1306p-archive-wordpress-posts-to-evernote">WordPress to Evernote</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/55029p-backup-new-wordpress-posts-to-google-drive">WordPress to Google Drive</a></li>
<li><a href="https://ifttt.com/applets/241312p-wordpress-to-onenote">WordPress to OneNote</a></li>
</ul>
<h2>Wrapping It Up….</h2>
<p>I hope by now you can see that IFTTT is a great tool to help you be more productive without needing to outsource any of your work. </p>
<p>And, the amount of Recipes you can create really is endless!</p>
<p>The best way to use this tool is to find the real problems in your workflow and then connect two tools to make the problem go away.</p>
<p>Which are the best IFTTT recipes for you? Which ones have you created that work well? Let me know in the comments&#8230;</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/">21x IFTTT Recipes For SEO, Bloggers &#038; Digital Marketers</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/6m1dXWJNQVQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/E2Bu8B-IrU8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ZdHXB-ggGzg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/kbQEEJXrs4M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/2nD51JripPc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/QJQlBdW9mZY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/K6ZrGpuXgUA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Z2JAX6h8vMs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/VvokckSQiTM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/8LNpoFFCT8g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/na2bxT_fXkU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ReKSthXEex8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/sUD1JX58MZ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/mYI5oosp2rI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/jhrq3TfPCd8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/9ZXUy34DOb8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/tdSEsGUSzt4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/4IKUjxrCYCk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ZkhzwXiD3Lo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/X8tRuhqcmro" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/MQRmvGxl9sg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsHow ToSEOTue, 31 Oct 2017 14:06:24 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/ifttt-recipes/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=48554Matthew Woodward2017-10-31T14:06:24ZThese Are The Best Survey Sites To Make The Most Moneyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/lLLrZmws5-Y/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/feed/68https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LDk9zrewo8k/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/1MrNX8gqom8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/rLUfWXPIe7s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/iFbskLtQvzY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/p2cx3Lt9rFU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/17cWNOlTIPk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xqt18gVOSsg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LdSiE-jU0Uc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/mCBcR1NhrGw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/_0zoz64i6L4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/h5skKlUCWJI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/UU0MROCPDGo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LKOeDiOJdRY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/584KqVVx5Ts/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/zMT6UFDkApo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ETd3BRvfSS0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/QehK5ALTXZk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/_aDNtAHgrvQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Ll4UWffQcbE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/cmkUvU7rP6Q/<p>Imagine if you could just share your opinion and make money. How great would it be to sit on your couch, in your free time, and make extra money just by saying what you feel about products, services, and newsworthy topics? You&#8217;re already doing it with your friends and on Facebook, so why not get paid for it? Well&#8230;now&#8217;s your chance. With online survey sites you have the opportunity to earn a side income by saying what you feel and shaping the future marketplace for products. And you can start making real money from it right now. In this article, ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/">These Are The Best Survey Sites To Make The Most Money</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Imagine if you could just share your opinion and make money.</p>
<p>How great would it be to sit on your couch, in your free time, and make extra money just by saying what you feel about products, services, and newsworthy topics?</p>
<p>You&#8217;re already doing it with your friends and on Facebook, so <strong>why not get paid for it?</strong></p>
<p>Well&#8230;now&#8217;s your chance.</p>
<p>With online survey sites you have the opportunity to earn a side income by saying what you feel and shaping the future marketplace for products.</p>
<p>And you can start making <strong>real money</strong> from it <strong>right now</strong>.</p>
<p>In this article, I want to give you a complete breakdown of <em>everything</em> you need to know to make money taking surveys.</p>
<p>So, if you have an opinion and want to get cash for it, it&#8217;s time to read on&#8230;</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>Why should you be taking online surveys?</li>
<li>How much money can you make?</li>
<li>The <strong>6 best survey sites</strong> to make money from</li>
<li>How to make money taking surveys <strong>TODAY</strong>!</li>
<li>FAQ: Your Most Asked Questions, Answered</li>
<li><strong><em>Bonus Tip:</em></strong> How to make your first $20 in 15 minutes</li>
</ul>
<p>You&#8217;ll also see <em>quick tip</em> boxes throughout the article</p>
<h2>Why Should You Be Taking Online Surveys?</h2>
<p>Online Survey sites allow you to start making money from performing simple online tasks.</p>
<p>If you have a computer, and internet connection and some free time that you want to get paid for &#8211; you&#8217;ve got everything you need. There&#8217;s no need for special qualifications or requirements.</p>
<p>While they are still <em>called</em> Survey Sites, many of them have branched out to give you lots of different opportunities to earn money.</p>
<p>You can find yourself getting paid to play games, watch YouTube Videos, talk about the products you love and even test them at home. Some of them will even pay you to shop through them.</p>
<p>They&#8217;re the tasks you were <em>going</em> to do online anyway, and now you can get paid for them.</p>
<p>But how much can you get paid?</p>
<h2>How Much Money Can You Make?</h2>
<p>You can <em>easily</em> <strong>make an extra $75-$100 per month</strong> if you use the sites and strategies in this article.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://www.retiredby40blog.com/2016/03/12/swagbucks-101-how-to-earn-a-day-with-swagbucks/" target="_blank">Gretchen from the <em>Retired by 40</em> blog</a> uses just one site to generate <strong>$1,205 extra cash per year</strong>. </p>
<p>All by playing games, shopping and performing simple Google Searches. (You&#8217;ll see her exact strategy later in this article).</p>
<p>By adding a handful of these sites together, you can start to create a <strong>second income </strong> for just a small investment of time each day.</p>
<p>And, imagine what you could do with an extra $1,200+ a year? You could:</p>
<ul>
<li>Pay for your next holiday</li>
<li>Cover the down payment on a new car</li>
<li>Invest in a <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/90-day-blogging-strategy/">new online business</a></li>
<li>Buy a brand new laptop</li>
</ul>
<p>Heck, that&#8217;s just what <em>I&#8217;d</em> do with the extra cash.</p>
<p>Survey Sites aren&#8217;t going to make you rich, but what they can do is provide you with a constant amount of extra cash to add to your disposable income (or put towards your debts).</p>
<p>Okay, so if you like the idea of earning extra money, where do you need to go to do it?</p>
<p>Well, that&#8217;s where this next list comes in&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: center">Quick Tip</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">Many sites use &#8216;points&#8217; as the currency on their site. These points all have a cash value when you cash out.</p>
<p style="text-align: center"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45512" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/acop-cash-value-897x144.png" alt="acop cash value" width="897" height="144" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/acop-cash-value-897x144.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/acop-cash-value-618x99.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/acop-cash-value.png 1325w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p style="text-align: center">The amount of points, and their dollar value, changes from site to site, so it&#8217;s worth checking the site to find out how many points equals what amount of dollars.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What Are The Best Survey Sites To Start Making Money From?</h2>
<p>In this section, you&#8217;ll find the <strong>six best survey sites</strong> for you to start making money from. But, what makes them the best?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ve handpicked only the most tried, tested and proven sites with the best track record. And, all of these sites will pay you in cold hard cash and not try to make you redeem gift cards instead.</p>
<p>Read about each site, find the ones that you like, and sign up for them. Then you can head to the next section where I outline how you can make money taking surveys right away.</p>
<h3>#1: <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrizeRebel</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Average Payment:</strong> 60 to 85 points</li>
<li><strong>Time Invested:</strong> 5-10 minutes</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45882" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/prizerebel-897x595.jpg" alt="prizerebel" width="897" height="595" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/prizerebel-897x595.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/prizerebel-618x410.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>PrizeRebel points are worth $0.01 each. But, they have a minimum payout of a $5 Amazon Gift Card, and they will payout within 24 hours.</p>
<p>In fact your are not just limited to Amazon gift cards. You can also be paid via PayPal, with BitCoin or direct to your bank account.</p>
<p>I like PrizeRebel because they offer a lot of quick hit surveys so you can earn a fair chunk of change very quickly.</p>
<p>And so far I have made $92.24 with them-</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033037_PM-897x507.jpg" alt="prize rebel earnings" width="897" height="507" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49806" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033037_PM-897x507.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033037_PM-618x349.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033037_PM.jpg 1033w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>This is where you&#8217;ll get the biggest return for your time and that is why I recommend them first.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>&#62;&#62; You can sign up for PrizeRebel here &#60;&#60;</strong></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>#2: <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MintVine</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Average Payment:</strong> $0.50 &#8211; $5.00 (£0.35 &#8211; £4.50)</li>
<li><strong>Time Invested:</strong> 10-20 minutes per survey</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45504" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mintvine-897x538.png" alt="mintvine" width="897" height="538" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mintvine-897x538.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/mintvine-618x371.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>MintVine has a perfect blend of payment amount and quantity of surveys. It&#8217;s not uncommon to earn in the region of $5.00 (£4.50) for a 15-minute survey.</p>
<p>So far I have made a total of $139.82 with MintVine-</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033259_PM.jpg" alt="mintvine earnings" width="407" height="427" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49807" /></a></p>
<p>You can also make money through them by:</p>
<ul>
<li>Redeeming offers</li>
<li>Shopping for local deals</li>
<li>Research studies</li>
<li>Referrals</li>
</ul>
<p>It&#8217;s simple, user-friendly, and gets good feedback from being part of the Better Business Bureau. So, you know you can trust spending your time here, too.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>&#62;&#62; You can sign up for MintVine here &#60;&#60;</strong></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>#3: <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Swagbucks</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Payment Range:</strong> Starting at $0.52 (£0.40) per Survey</li>
<li><strong>Time Invested:</strong> 10-20 minutes per survey</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45502" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-897x460.png" alt="swagbucks" width="897" height="460" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-897x460.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-618x317.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>Swagbucks gives you the <strong>most</strong> opportunities to earn money. Surveys and Polls are the backbones of this site. However you can make money in 13 different ways:</p>
<ol>
<li>Complete daily Poll&#8217;s</li>
<li>Answer opinion surveys</li>
<li>Use the Swagbucks search function</li>
<li>Watch YouTube videos or clips (Desktop and Mobile)</li>
<li>Shop online through Swagbucks</li>
<li>Play games</li>
<li>Find trial offers</li>
<li>Install the Swagbucks toolbar on your browser</li>
<li>Complete specific tasks</li>
<li>Print and use coupons from their site</li>
<li>Read online articles</li>
<li>Hit your daily target of Swagbucks (or get on a winning streak and get more points)</li>
<li>Redeem Swag Codes</li>
</ol>
<p>There&#8217;s money to be made here. </p>
<p>In fact, users over on the <a href="http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=70415240&#38;_ga=1.176303717.1725964614.1470212914" target="_blank">Money Saving Expert</a> forum have reported making <em>at least</em> £25 per month from the site:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45509" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-quote-897x196.png" alt="swagbucks quote" width="897" height="196" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-quote-897x196.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-quote-618x135.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-quote.png 1303w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>They even run a yearly challenge to see how much money can be made with hundreds of active participants, so there&#8217;s no shortage of money for you to get your hands on.</p>
<p>I have had great success with SwagBucks and you will as well!</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>&#62;&#62; You can sign up for SwagBucks here &#60;&#60;</strong></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h3>#4: <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CashCrate</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Average Payment:</strong> $0.50 &#8211; $3.00 per survey</li>
<li><strong>Time Invested:</strong> 5-10 minutes</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45883" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cash-crate-897x685.jpg" alt="cashcrate" width="897" height="685" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cash-crate-897x685.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/cash-crate-618x472.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>CashCrate is another good payer for surveys. They also work all of your earnings in dollars, and not points, which is a breath of fresh air here.</p>
<p>I was able to rack up $18.51 quite quickly-</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_033805_PM.jpg" alt="" width="259" height="181" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49808" /></a></p>
<p>They have a payout minimum of $20, and it&#8217;s sent by paper cheque. You&#8217;ll receive your payment around two weeks later, according to reports from long-term users.</p>
<p>You can make money taking surveys, offers, and playing games. It&#8217;s one of the more fun sites to use, that will also pay you quite handsomely.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: center"><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>&#62;&#62; You can sign up for CashCrate here &#60;&#60;</strong></a></p>
</blockquote>
<h2>How Can You Start To Make Money Taking Surveys?</h2>
<p>These strategies will help you make <strong>as much</strong> money as possible by choosing the most effective parts of each site is.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget I have only included the best survey sites in this list so focusing on them will help you to make the most money.</p>
<h3>Step #1: Sign Up To All Of The Best Paid Survey Sites</h3>
<p>Have you ever heard of the compound effect?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s where you take small, incremental, changes and add them together to create one <strong>big</strong> overall result. </p>
<p>For example, earning $1.00 a day extra doesn&#8217;t <em>sound</em> like much, but over a year that&#8217;s $365 &#8211; a much more handsome sum of money.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the approach you need to take to earning money from these sites. The more sites you have access to, the more:</p>
<ul>
<li>Surveys</li>
<li>Games</li>
<li>Offers</li>
<li>Deals</li>
<li>Polls</li>
<li>Referrals</li>
</ul>
<p>You&#8217;re going to be able to make money from. Not all sites offer surveys every day, and not all of them have great deals, so it&#8217;s best to keep your options open.</p>
<p>If one site doesn&#8217;t look worth your time today, you can swap to another and cash in there. And on the days that <em>all</em> the sites are offering great deals, you&#8217;ve got access to an absolute goldmine.</p>
<p>So, go ahead and sign up to as many sites as you can and then meet me in the next step.</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: center">Quick Tip</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">All of these sites have a cash out threshold. That means you need to reach a certain amount of points, or cash, before you can redeem them.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">It&#8217;s in your best interest to <em>at least</em> reach this threshold on the site you&#8217;re working on, so you can <strong>definitely</strong> get paid for the work you&#8217;ve done.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step #2: Cash In All Of Your Sign Up Options</h3>
<p>When you sign up to a site, they&#8217;ll give you lots of options to start earning extra points or cash.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks">Swagbucks</a> gives you a lot of options.</p>
<p>In <strong>61 seconds</strong> you can make around $1.00, and all you&#8217;ve done is click a few buttons.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45511" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-earn-897x621.png" alt="make money taking surveys with swagbucks" width="897" height="621" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-earn-897x621.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-earn-618x428.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-earn.png 1240w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>Explore all of these options when you sign up, on all of the sites you choose, and you can find yourself with a fistful of cash that you didn&#8217;t have when you woke up this morning.</p>
<p>You can also do this with <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="MintVine">MintVine</a>&#8211;</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034623_PM-897x594.jpg" alt="mintvine signup options" width="897" height="594" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49810" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034623_PM-897x594.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034623_PM-618x409.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034623_PM.jpg 931w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Not only that but they&#8217;ll also guide you through the entire process to make repeat instant cash.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="CashCrate">CashCrate</a> are also a good way to generate some instant profits-</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="CashCrate"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034810_PM-897x127.jpg" alt="" width="897" height="127" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49811" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034810_PM-897x127.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034810_PM-618x88.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_101717_034810_PM.jpg 966w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>Just sign up and follow the steps &#8211; it&#8217;s easy!</p>
<p>In fact if you stopped reading this article and signed up for <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks">SwagBucks</a>, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="MintVine">MintVine</a> and <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="CashCrate">CashCrate</a> right now <strong>you would make instant money</strong>.</p>
<h3>Step #3: Take (And Apply For) As Many Surveys As You Can</h3>
<p>Some sites will require you to apply for surveys. Don&#8217;t worry; it&#8217;s nothing strenuous.</p>
<p>You&#8217;ll be asked to fill out some criteria that will test whether you fit the product or service. And, then they&#8217;ll decide if you&#8217;re a good candidate.</p>
<p>This may sound like you <em>could</em> waste time here, but <a href="http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=1683419" target="_blank">you&#8217;ll get points just for applying</a>, which all add up for when you <em>do</em> land a survey:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45569" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/global-test-market-points-897x284.png" alt="global test market points" width="897" height="284" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/global-test-market-points-897x284.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/global-test-market-points-618x195.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You won&#8217;t always need to apply for a survey &#8211; some will be offered to you, or be readily available, like the ones below. But the more opportunities you give yourself, the better.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45545" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/surveys-and-earn-897x260.png" alt="surveys and earn" width="897" height="260" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/surveys-and-earn-897x260.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/surveys-and-earn-618x179.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>But remember, this is the <strong>ultimate way</strong> to start making money from Survey Sites &#8211; taking the surveys that they offer.</p>
<p>They&#8217;re the most consistent, and most plentiful source of money on these sites.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d <em>love</em> to tell you that there is an amazing, foolproof, system that gives you $5 surveys every time. </p>
<p>But, sadly, there isn&#8217;t. Instead you need to <strong>check the sites every day for surveys</strong> and complete them.</p>
<p>Some days they&#8217;ll be worth pennies. Others, like on Pinecone Research, will be worth much more. Keep in mind this is a <strong>long-term</strong> strategy for making money, and it <em>will</em> pay off over time.</p>
<p>Just be consistent and focus on the highest paying surveys when they come available.</p>
<p>However, if they&#8217;re not available, there are <strong>many</strong> ways to keep on making money&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: center">Quick Tip</h3>
<p style="text-align: center">Short on time?</p>
<p style="text-align: center">Focus your time and effort on the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Prize Rebel">Prize Rebel</a> site. In 15-20 minutes you can take <em>lots</em> more surveys than you can on any other site. And, while the pay is less per survey, you&#8217;ll be able to get a much higher amount done.</p>
<p style="text-align: center">So where you may only earn $1.00 for a 15-20 minute survey, you may make $1.50 &#8211; $1.75 for 20 minutes on there instead.</p>
</blockquote>
<h3>Step #4: Take Small, Daily, Actions On Swagbucks </h3>
<p>Remember at the start of the article I told you about Gretchen? She makes $1,205 a year <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="from Swagbucks">from Swagbucks</a>.</p>
<p>She performs small, daily tasks that mount up to create a <strong>big</strong> chunk of money. </p>
<p>Here&#8217;s what she does every day, week or month, to get her results&#8230;</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li><strong>Searching each day</strong> = 50 SB a week = 2,600 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Redeem 10 coupons each week</strong> = 100 SB a week = 5,200 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Take The Daily Poll</strong> = 365 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Do One Survey Each Day</strong> = 60 SB = 21,900 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Earn 100 Bonus Swagbucks per Month</strong> = 51,200 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Play 2 Games per day</strong> = 2 SB = 730 SB Per Year</li>
<li><strong>Complete Daily Offers</strong> = 2 SB = 730 SB Per Year</li>
<li><strong>Watch Videos Each Day</strong> = 20 SB = 7,300 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Play Videos on the Mobile App</strong> = 50 SB = 18,250 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Shop through Shop &#38; Earn once a month</strong> = 100 SB = 1,200 SB per year</li>
<li><strong>Earn Daily Goal Bonuses</strong> = 3 SB per day = 1,095 SB per year</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>That&#8217;s <strong>110,570 Swagbucks</strong> which is at least $1,105 in gift cards or around <strong>$100 extra every month</strong>.</p>
<p>Many of these tasks don&#8217;t take effort from you, either. </p>
<p>Watching a video doesn&#8217;t require any real <em>watching</em> as long as it&#8217;s running in the background. </p>
<p>You can even plug your headphones in and leave them out of your ears so you don&#8217;t have to hear it.</p>
<p>And, if you perform your Google searches through Swagbucks you can find yourself earning money for stuff you were going to look for anyway. </p>
<p>You&#8217;ve just been extra smart and monetised it.</p>
<p>These tasks can be performed through <strong>multiple sites</strong> as well. </p>
<p>You aren&#8217;t tied to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks">Swagbucks</a> here. </p>
<p>You can apply the same to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="PrizeRebel">PrizeRebel</a> &#038; <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Mintvine">Mintvine</a> and any <em>other</em> sites that follow the same system and triple that income.</p>
<h3>Step #5: Make Money Buying Products You Like</h3>
<p>Buying products <em>through</em> your Survey sites can mean not only do you get some products for <strong>free</strong>, you can also make more money <em>back</em> on them.</p>
<p>Here is where you get the <strong>most money</strong> for the <strong>least</strong> time invested.</p>
<p>Take a look at this example from <a href="http://surveychris.com/is-swagbucks-legit/" target="_blank">Survey Chris</a>&#8230;</p>
<p>He bought an Audible Membership through a survey site at a discounted price of $1 (usually $7-$10). He likes audiobooks and was going to pick up the product anyway.</p>
<p>As part of that offer, he was able to redeem a certain amount of points for buying the product <strong>and</strong> for keeping it:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45572" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/audible-screenshot-897x757.png" alt="sign up to the best paid survey sites" width="897" height="757" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/audible-screenshot-897x757.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/audible-screenshot-618x522.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/audible-screenshot.png 1294w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>In total, Chris was able to earn <strong>$8 from a $2 purchase</strong> ($1 to buy and $1 to hold it for the second month), which is a $6 gain overall. </p>
<p>Not bad for doing what you were going to do anyway, is it?</p>
<p>You can earn money like this through:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks">Swagbucks</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="MintVine">MintVine</a></li>
</ul>
<p>And, they also give you the option to earn cashback on the <em>other</em> purchases you make online.</p>
<p>If you were to shop at your favourite high-street retailers through the options on the site, you can earn points or cash back on every $1.00 you spend.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-45551" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-shop-and-earn-897x247.png" alt="swagbucks-shop-and-earn" width="897" height="247" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-shop-and-earn-897x247.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/swagbucks-shop-and-earn-618x170.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Before you spend online, take an extra couple of minutes to look and see if there is an offer through any of the sites you&#8217;re signed up too. </p>
<p>Who knows, it could just make you a profit.</p>
<blockquote>
<h3 style="text-align: center">This Section In Short</h3>
<p>Okay, I just want to quickly talk you through each of the last points, so you know what you <em>need</em> to do to start making money from Survey Sites.</p>
<p>Here are the steps you need to take:</p>
<h4>Step #1: Sign Up To All The Best Survey Sites</h4>
<p>The more sites you&#8217;re a member of, the more opportunities there are to make money.</p>
<p>Not every site is <em>full</em> of offers and surveys each day, so having more options help maximise how much you will learn.</p>
<p>However I would highly recommend you only stick to all of the best survey sites that I have listed for you above-</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/prizerebel/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Prize Rebel">Prize Rebel</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Mint Vine">Mint Vine</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swag Bucks">Swag Bucks</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Cash Crate">Cash Crate</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Step #2: Redeem The Sign Up Offers</h4>
<p>There are <em>lots</em> of sign up offers on each site, so be sure to cash them in. </p>
<p>You can earn $20+ in your first few hours just be changing a few of your internet settings and signing up for a few free extras.</p>
<h4>Step #3: Take (And Apply For) As Many Surveys As You Can</h4>
<p>When surveys are readily available take them and focus your time on the highest payers.</p>
<p>If you have to apply &#8211; even if you think you might not be eligible &#8211; do it anyway. </p>
<p>You&#8217;ll receive a small amount of points that will give all add up for when you <em>do</em> get onto one of the surveys.</p>
<h4>Step #4: Take Small, Daily, Actions</h4>
<p>Much like Gretchen, find small things to do every day on each site.</p>
<p>Search, spend, redeem offers and activate toolbars to accrue points that will add to your total. It may sound small now, but it&#8217;ll make a huge difference over 6-12 months.</p>
<h4>Step #5: Redeem Offers And Shop Online</h4>
<p><strong>Before</strong> you make any purchases online, be sure to check out what offers are being made on your different sites. </p>
<p>You could earn cashback, or even <strong>make more money than you spend</strong> on some of your purchases.</p></blockquote>
<h2>Frequently Asked Questions: What Do You Need To Know?</h2>
<p>In this section, I want to explore some of your biggest concerns and put your mind at ease.</p>
<h3>Are There Scam Survey Sites?</h3>
<p>None of the sites on this list are scam sites. All of them have a good track record of paying on time.</p>
<p>There will always be people who have a negative experience with a site. So, you will be able to find bad reviews if you go looking for them.</p>
<p>But the sites here are all part of the Better Business Bureau, or larger organizations, to ensure they have excellent customer service &#038; are all legitimate paid survey sites.</p>
<h3>How Will You Be Paid?</h3>
<p>This depends on the website.</p>
<p>While some sites are forward thinking and pay through PayPal, many of them opt to pay by cheque.</p>
<h3>Will You Be Wasting Your Time?</h3>
<p>Only if you <em>don&#8217;t</em> cash out.</p>
<p>While the sites are there for you to make money, they aren&#8217;t against you doing the work for free. </p>
<p>That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s important that you <strong>always</strong> try to hit the payment threshold, no matter how long it takes.</p>
<p>When you get paid, it&#8217;s not time wasted.</p>
<h3>Can I Automate The Work?</h3>
<p>Lots of people ask about if they can get the work done&#8230;without doing the work.</p>
<p>While it <em>is</em> possible on individual sites, it&#8217;s really not worth it. You&#8217;ll waste more time and effort setting it up than it&#8217;s worth. </p>
<p>And, if you get found out, you&#8217;ll have lost a lot of time for nothing.</p>
<h2>Wrapping It Up</h2>
<p>Okay, there you have it, that&#8217;s everything you need to know about the best free survey sites &#038; how to make the most money with them.</p>
<p>If you have spare time, an internet connection and the desire to earn more money, you&#8217;ve got no excuse <em>not</em> to start using them. </p>
<p>It really is money for old rope!</p>
<p>Remember&#8230;</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Volume is key:</strong> The more sites you sign up to, the better.</li>
<li><strong>Don&#8217;t only rely on Surveys:</strong> They are the most consistent way to make money, but explore the <em>bigger</em> money options around them too.</li>
<li><strong>It&#8217;s about the long game:</strong> This isn&#8217;t a get rich quick scheme, but after time you&#8217;ll find you have a solid amount of money to work with</li>
</ul>
<p>And if you want to make instant money right sign up to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/swagbucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Swagbucks">SwagBucks</a>, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mintvine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="MintVine">MintVine</a> and <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cashcrate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="CashCrate">CashCrate</a> right now &#038; follow the steps.</p>
<p>Now, it&#8217;s over to you &#8211; <strong>where are you going to start with surveys?</strong></p>
<p>Let me know in the comments&#8230;</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/">These Are The Best Survey Sites To Make The Most Money</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LDk9zrewo8k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/1MrNX8gqom8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/rLUfWXPIe7s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/iFbskLtQvzY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/p2cx3Lt9rFU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/17cWNOlTIPk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xqt18gVOSsg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LdSiE-jU0Uc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/mCBcR1NhrGw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/_0zoz64i6L4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/h5skKlUCWJI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/UU0MROCPDGo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LKOeDiOJdRY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/584KqVVx5Ts" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/zMT6UFDkApo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ETd3BRvfSS0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/QehK5ALTXZk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/_aDNtAHgrvQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Ll4UWffQcbE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/cmkUvU7rP6Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/lLLrZmws5-Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsHow ToMake MoneyWed, 18 Oct 2017 12:35:02 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=45565Matthew Woodward2017-10-18T12:35:02ZIncrease Search Traffic With These 3 Internal Link Building Strategieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/2xFryxD5b6w/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/feed/44https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/HCkQGyj6W7g/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/--veU11onUk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/-8Kbp4FIAao/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/b2nBK3wYN-Y/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Z0Fm6pAQFds/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/fAUKhQUdmNE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/wlWH-lQC3dA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/s5yxFW4sGwQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/fBa4vW7DW8A/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/6cYWHDnNaPY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/08S1s4JqHtM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xqtKRJOje04/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ljaeXOwJRDA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/-hDShD9iXyk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/YDqsun2Q6DQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/lBZUaIaqW7Q/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/yAK5xd2uiok/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/rHCD1aGtaSk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/e7emoANHGrM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/jSzeyDzmvBk/<p>Internal link building is the most powerful SEO tactic you are not using. It’s a tactic used by most well-known websites (i.e. those already ranking in the top 10) for one simple reason: it has the power to boost rankings like crazy. Don’t believe me? I am going to show you how one site used internal linking to jump from position #29 to #4 in a matter of weeks. And another that went from position #33 to #5. Crazy! It’s also extremely quick/easy to implement and carries (almost) zero risk of Google penalties. In fact, it can be implemented pretty ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/">Increase Search Traffic With These 3 Internal Link Building Strategies</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Internal link building is the most powerful SEO tactic you are <em>not</em> using.</p>
<p>It’s a tactic used by <em>most</em> well-known websites (i.e. those already ranking in the top 10) for one simple reason: it has the power to boost rankings like crazy.</p>
<p>Don’t believe me?</p>
<p>I am going to show you how one site used internal linking to jump from position #29 to #4 in a matter of weeks.</p>
<p>And another that went from position #33 to #5.</p>
<p>Crazy!</p>
<p>It’s also <em>extremely</em> quick/easy to implement and carries (almost) zero risk of Google penalties.</p>
<p>In fact, it can be implemented pretty much overnight.</p>
<p>Sound good?</p>
<p>In this post, I’ll be showing you everything you need to know about internal link building (and more).</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>What internal linking is</li>
<li>How internal linking helps Google to discover your content</li>
<li>How strategic internal linking can bring <em>huge</em> ranking boosts</li>
<li>How internal linking will make you more money</li>
<li>3 methods for building internal links (including my “quick ‘n’ dirty” method)</li>
</ul>
<p>Ready to dive in? Let’s go&#8230;</p>
<h2>What is Internal Linking? (And Why Is It Important)</h2>
<p>There are two types of links:</p>
<p><em>Internal</em> and <em>external</em>.</p>
<p>Basically, an internal link will take you to a web page or resource on the same domain, whereas an external link will take you to a resource on a different domain.</p>
<p>Let me illustrate with an example…</p>
<p>Here are two links from <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tips/best-link-building-tools-tips/" target="_blank">my list of the best link building tools</a>:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/29_Experts_Reveal_The_Best_Link_Building_Tools_For_SEO.png" alt="29 Experts Reveal The Best Link Building Tools For SEO" /></p>
<p>Link #1 is an internal link (i.e. it links to another web page on my domain) which takes you to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/scrapebox-tutorial/" target="_blank">my ultimate guide to Scrapebox</a> (btw, this <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=scrapebox" target="_blank">currently ranks #2 for “scrapebox”</a>, so you can already start to see the power of internal linking!).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/The_Ultimate_Guide_to_Scrapebox_-_The_Only_Scrapebox_Tutorial_You_Need.png" alt="The Ultimate Guide to Scrapebox The Only Scrapebox Tutorial You Need" /></p>
<p>However, link #2 is an external link (i.e. it links to a page on a different domain) as it takes you <a href="https://patrickcoombe.com/" target="_blank">Patrick Coombe’s website</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Patrick_Coombe_SEO_Blogger_and_SEO_Consultant.png" alt="Patrick Coombe SEO Blogger and SEO Consultant" /></p>
<p>Simple, right!?</p>
<p>Both <em>internal</em> and <em>external</em> links are important for different reasons but, as this post is about internal links, here are 3 reasons why internal links matter:</p>
<h3>#1 &#8211; Internal Links Help Google To Discover Your New Content</h3>
<p>Google’s discovers new websites/pages in a number of ways, although most pages are almost certainly discovered via web crawling/spidering.</p>
<p>Matt Cutts explains more about the crawling process in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNHR6IQJGZs" target="_blank">this video</a>:</p>
<div align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/BNHR6IQJGZs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Here’s a practical demonstration of how Google uses crawling to discover new web pages:</p>
<p>Right now, Google has 554 pages from my blog in their index (hint: you can check the indexation status of your website with <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amatthewwoodward.co.uk" target="_blank">a </a><em><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amatthewwoodward.co.uk" target="_blank">site:</a></em><a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amatthewwoodward.co.uk" target="_blank"> search in Google</a>).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/google-index-site-search.png" alt="google index site search" /></p>
<p>I know my blog pretty well (obviously), so I know that 554 pages = pretty much all the pages on my blog.</p>
<p>Great, so that’s Google’s work done, right!?</p>
<p>Not so fast.</p>
<p>Google <em>knows</em> websites change all the time.</p>
<p>For example, you may periodically change the content on your “about us” page, or write a brand new blog post every few days.</p>
<p>Because of this, they have to constantly re-crawl websites/web pages to look for new content.</p>
<p>This is where <em>internal links</em> come in.</p>
<p>Google relies on internal links to discover new content, this works because whenever you add a new page/post to your website it’ll almost always be linked-to from <em>somewhere</em> on your website.</p>
<p>For example, whenever I publish a new blog post, a link to it automatically appears both on my main blog page and on the appropriate category page:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Email_Archives_-_Matthew_Woodward.png" alt="Email Archives Matthew Woodward" /></p>
<p>Because Google has already indexed my main blog page (and category pages), their crawler will follow that internal link to discover my latest blog post during their next re-crawl.</p>
<p>Like I said, most content management systems (e.g. WordPress) add internal links to new pages/posts automatically, but these aren’t always in the best location for SEO purposes.</p>
<p>This is why you need a smart internal linking strategy (more on this later!)</p>
<h3>#2 &#8211; Internal Links Help Google To Rank (And Better Understand) Your Web Pages</h3>
<p>It’s <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/google-ranking-factors-signals/" target="_blank">rumoured</a> that the number of internal links pointing to a web page is one of Google’s 200+ ranking factors.</p>
<p>In fact:</p>
<p>Google themselves <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/138752?hl=en" target="_blank">have stated</a> that “the number of internal links pointing to a page is a signal to search engines about the relative importance of that page.”</p>
<p><strong>Rumour confirmed, much!?</strong></p>
<p>There have also been a number of case studies whereby a smart internal linking strategy has resulted in HUGE ranking boosts…</p>
<p>I’m talking about <a href="http://www.websitetips4u.com/internal-linking/" target="_blank">jumping from position #29 to #4</a>.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.orbitmedia.com/blog/how-to-get-a-blog-post-to-rank/" target="_blank">position #33 to #5</a>.</p>
<p>All using nothing but smart internal linking.</p>
<p>But, <em>why</em> would this be a ranking factor?</p>
<p>Well, Google uses the number of internal links to a page to figure out how important that page may be.</p>
<p>For example, I link to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-reports/" target="_blank">my blog income reports</a> from within my main navigation bar (which is present on every page of my website) — this tells Google that I deem this content to be of high importance.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/My_Monthly_Blog_Income_Report_List_Reveals_My_7_Figure_Secrets.png" alt="My Monthly Blog Income Report List Reveals My 7 Figure Secrets" /></p>
<p>And if I think this page is important, chances are that other people will, too.</p>
<p>It also passes more “link juice” to that page, meaning that it’ll be more authoritative in Google’s eyes.</p>
<p>Here’s a good video showing how “link juice/flow” works:</p>
<div align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WP28bmINJ4o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>Another important aspect of internal links is the anchor text used within the link(s). This helps Google to understand what that particular web page is about.</p>
<p>For example, in <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-july-2016/" target="_blank">one of my income reports</a>, I link to my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/semrush/" target="_blank">SEMRush review</a> with the anchor text “epic SEMRush review”.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Monthly_Income__Growth___Traffic_Report___July_2016.png" alt="Monthly Income Growth Traffic Report July 2016" /></p>
<p>In Google’s eyes, this helps reinforce what that page is about (i.e. a review of SEMRush) and helps them feel more confident about ranking it for SEMRush-related terms.</p>
<p>(that post actually ranks on the first page for the phrase “SEMRush review”)</p>
<p>In simple terms: the anchor text you use for internal links <em>is</em> almost certain a ranking factor.</p>
<p>And if you’re worried about <a href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/anchor-text-after-penguin-4/" target="_blank">being penalised by Google’s Penguin (4.0) algorithm for manipulating anchor text</a> like this, don’t worry; Penguin is much more lenient when it comes to internal links.</p>
<h3>#3 &#8211; Internal Links Help Make You More Money (Yes, Really!)</h3>
<p>Internal links provide a navigational aid for real-life visitors to your website.</p>
<p>The links in your navigation menu provide perhaps the most obvious example of this — they funnel visitors to the most important pages on your website.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/matthew-woodward-navigation.png" alt="matthew woodward internal link navigation" /></p>
<p>But this is also true for internal links within your content.</p>
<p>For example, I funnel visitors to my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank">email marketing strategy</a> using an internal link in <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/increase-email-subscribers/" target="_blank">this post</a>.</p>
<p>But why do I do this?</p>
<p>Because it makes me more money.</p>
<p>Not only does my email marketing post provide a <em>ton</em> of value for my visitors (or, at least I hope it does!), it also contains affiliate links.</p>
<p>Strategically sending my traffic to this page results in more affiliate conversions and therefore, more money (ka-ching!)</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Ultimate_Email_Marketing_Part_1_-_My_Email_Marketing_Strategy.png" alt="Ultimate Email Marketing Part 1 My Email Marketing Strategy" /></p>
<p>Here are a few ways you can use internal links to make more money:</p>
<ul>
<li>Funnel people towards high-converting pages</li>
<li>Funnel people towards pages with affiliate links</li>
<li>Funnel people towards relevant products/services</li>
</ul>
<p>It’s also worth noting that the use of strategically placed internal links will help <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/critical-bounce-rate-mistakes/" target="_blank">reduce bounce rate</a>; this can have some SEO benefit and indirectly increase revenue.</p>
<p>Why? </p>
<p>Because Google probably uses a type of bounce rate as a ranking factor if people click back to the SERPs after visiting your site. </p>
<p>So while bounce rate is not a direct ranking metric (Google can&#8217;t know that for all traffic sources) it is an indicator towards people returning to the search results rather than engaging with your content.</p>
<p>A lower bounce rate may mean you rank higher and therefore lead to more organic traffic.</p>
<p>More traffic <em>usually</em> = more money.</p>
<h2>3 Internal Link Building Strategies You Can Implement Today</h2>
<p>OK, enough talk…</p>
<p>It’s time to build some strategic, rank boosting, revenue-increasing internal links.</p>
<p>Here are the 3 processes I’m going to walk you through:</p>
<ol>
<li>My quick ‘n’ dirty method.</li>
<li>The manual method <em>(hint: this is better than the quick ‘n’ dirty method, but is more time-consuming)</em>.</li>
<li><strong>BONUS:</strong> The power process (trying to rank a certain page? — you <em>need</em> this).</li>
</ol>
<p>Let’s go through each one step-by-step.</p>
<h3>#1— My Quick And Dirty Internal Linking Process</h3>
<p>When it comes to SEO, time = money.</p>
<p>This is because the longer one task takes, the less time you have to spend on other important tasks (this is known as <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain/microeconomics/choices-opp-cost-tutorial/production-possibilities/v/opportunity-cost" target="_blank">opportunity cost</a>).</p>
<p>My 3-step quick ‘n’ dirty process can be implemented super-quickly, yet it still leads to incredible results.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: This method only works for WordPress-based websites.</p>
<p>Here’s the basic process:</p>
<ol>
<li>Create a list of URLs and primary target keywords</li>
<li>Find the LSI keywords for each of those primary keywords</li>
<li>Use the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">SEO Auto Linker plugin</a> to add strategically-placed internal links in seconds.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Important</strong>: I’ve created <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17YOFpD8EckIh4q7jXR_VZLK7wT9j3fcfhGz6C5xQ_rI/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">a Google Sheet </a>to make this process insanely straightforward. I recommend making a copy of it before you begin.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s get started.</p>
<h4>Step #1 — Gather A List Of URLs And Primary Keywords</h4>
<p>Some of you will already have a list of URLs mapped to primary keywords.</p>
<p>If so, fantastic — paste them into the first tab of your Google Sheet (this is the one titled: “#1 — URLs / Keywords”) and jump straight to step #2.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets" /></p>
<p>If not, no worries, you can use either <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/semrush/" target="_blank" >SEMRush</a> (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/semrushtrial/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">click here</a> for a free 14-day trial) or URL Profiler (again, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">14-day free trial available here</a>) to export a list of keywords your web pages already rank for.</p>
<p>But first, you need to gather a list of URLs from your website.</p>
<p>If you have a <a href="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/post-sitemap.xml" target="_blank">sitemap</a> (which you should), you can simply copy/paste the list of URLs from the sitemap into the sheet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/XML_Sitemap.png" alt="XML Sitemap" /></p>
<p>But, if not, here’s another super-quick way to do this:</p>
<p>Go to <a href="https://www.google.com/" target="_blank">Google</a> and search for the following:</p>
<p><em>site:yourdomain.com</em></p>
<p>This will return a list of all the pages on your website.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/google-index-site-search.png" alt="google index site search" /></p>
<p>I also recommend setting the number of results per page to 100 under “search settings”, like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/site_matthewwoodward_co_uk_-_Google_Search.png" alt="site matthewwoodward co uk Google Search" /></p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Search_Settings.png" alt="Search Settings" /></p>
<p>You can then use <a href="http://www.chrisains.com/seo-tools/extract-urls-from-web-serps/" target="_blank">this free Chrome bookmarklet</a> to scrape all 100 results from the SERPs.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SEO_SERP_Extraction_Tool.png" alt="SEO SERP Extraction Tool" /></p>
<p>Paste these into the <em>URLs</em> column in the Google Sheet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets-4.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets 4" /></p>
<p>Next, use the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/semrushtrial/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">SEMRush</a> or <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">URL Profiler</a> trials to extract the keywords each of these URLs currently rank for.</p>
<p>Here’s how to do this using each of these tools:</p>
<h5>How To Extract Keywords With SEMRush</h5>
<p>Go to the <a href="https://www.semrush.com/info/empty/url_organic/" target="_blank">URL report</a> (under Organic Research) in SEMRush.</p>
<p>Paste in one of the URLs from your Google Sheet (hint: it makes sense to start with the first one on the list!)</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Organic_Research_-_URL___SEMrush_English.png" alt="Organic Research URL SEMrush English" /></p>
<p>Click <em>Search</em>.</p>
<p>Scroll down and you should see a list of organic search keywords for that page.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/http___www_matthewwoodward_co_uk_tutorials_6-figure-product-launch-formula__-_Organic_Search_Positions.png" alt="http www matthewwoodward co uk tutorials 6 figure product launch formula Organic Search Positions" /></p>
<p>Click <em>Export</em>.</p>
<p>Open the .csv in Excel, the copy/paste the list of keywords into <a href="https://delim.co" target="_blank">this free tool</a> — this will convert the list of keywords (which are exported into a single column) into a comma-separated list.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Free_Online_Comma_Separator_Tool.png" alt="Free Online Comma Separator Tool" /></p>
<p>Copy the comma-separated list (on the right) into the “primary keywords” column in your Google Sheet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets-3.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets 3" /></p>
<p>Rinse and repeat for the rest of the URLs on your list.</p>
<h5>How To Extract Keywords With URL Profiler</h5>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">URL Profiler</a> connects to Google Search Console to extract the keywords your website already ranks for.</p>
<p>Here’s how to do it:</p>
<p>Copy/paste your list of URLs into <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">URL Profiler</a>, then tick the “search analytics” checkbox.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pasted_Image_11_08_2017__17_22.png" alt="Pasted Image 11 08 2017 17 22" /></p>
<p><strong>Important:</strong> You MUST connect <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">URL Profiler</a> to <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en" target="_blank">Google Search Console</a> for this to work. This can be done under <em>Accounts</em> on the menu bar.</p>
<p>Click <em>Run Profiler</em>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">URL Profiler</a> should spit out a .csv showing all URLs and their corresponding keywords.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pasted_Image_11_08_2017__17_24.png" alt="Pasted Image 11 08 2017 17 24" /></p>
<p>Annoyingly, these keywords are divided into multiple columns, so you’ll need to use <a href="http://www.convertcsv.com/csv-to-csv.htm" target="_blank">this free tool </a>to convert this into a comma-separated list.</p>
<p>Here’s how:</p>
<p>Copy all the keywords from the .csv for a particular URL.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/http_3A_2F_2Fwww_matthewwoodward_co_uk_2Ftutorials_2F6-figure-product-launch-formula_2F-url_organic-us.png" alt="http 3A 2F 2Fwww matthewwoodward co uk 2Ftutorials 2F6 figure product launch formula 2F url organic us" /></p>
<p>Paste them into <a href="http://www.convertcsv.com/csv-to-csv.htm" target="_blank">this tool</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CSV_To_Excel_Delimited_Converter-2.png" alt="CSV To Excel Delimited Converter 2" /></p>
<p>Under <em>Step 3: Choose output options, </em>check the comma option under the options for <em>Output Field Separator</em>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CSV_To_Excel_Delimited_Converter.png" alt="CSV To Excel Delimited Converter" /></p>
<p>Click <em>Convert CSV to Delimited</em>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/CSV_To_Excel_Delimited_Converter-1.png" alt="CSV To Excel Delimited Converter 1" /></p>
<p>Copy/paste the comma-separated list of keywords into the <em>Primary Keywords</em> column in your Google Sheet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets-2.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets 2" /></p>
<h4>Step #2 — Find The LSI Keywords For Your Primary Keywords</h4>
<p>&#8220;LSI keywords&#8221; is really just a technical term form &#8220;related keywords&#8221;.</p>
<p>For example, if we take the keyword “<em>product launch formula”,</em> an LSI keyword could be <em>“product launches”</em> or <em>&#8220;launching a product”.</em></p>
<p>Because you’ve already got a list of keywords for each of your URLs, finding LSI keywords should be a breeze.</p>
<p>Start by brainstorming related keywords. Add them to your spreadsheet.</p>
<p>Still, brainstorming will only get you so far, so here are a couple of other methods:</p>
<h5>How To Find LSI Keywords With Google</h5>
<p>Copy one of the keywords from your Google Sheet and paste it into Google.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/product_launch_formula_-_Google_Search-1.png" alt="product launch formula Google Search 1" /></p>
<p>Scroll to the bottom of the results page and you should see a list of related searches.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/product_launch_formula_-_Google_Search.png" alt="product launch formula Google Search" /></p>
<p>Copy any relevant keywords into the LSI Keywords column in your Google Sheet (note: not all keywords will be relevant, so be picky!)</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets-5.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets 5" /></p>
<p>Rinse and repeat for the rest of the keywords (and for all the URLs) on your list.</p>
<h5>How To Find LSI Keywords With LSIGraph.com</h5>
<p>Go to <a href="http://lsigraph.com/" target="_blank">LSIGraph.com</a> and paste in a keyword from your spreadsheet.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LSIGraph__LSI_Keyword_Generator.png" alt="LSIGraph LSI Keyword Generator" /></p>
<p>Click <em>Generate</em>.</p>
<p>It should then kick back a bunch of LSI keywords.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/LSIGraph__LSI_Keyword_Generator-1.png" alt="LSIGraph LSI Keyword Generator 1" /></p>
<p>Add any relevant ones to the <em>LSI Keywords</em> column in your spreadsheet.</p>
<h4>Step #3 — Add These Keywords To Your Website With SEO Auto Linker</h4>
<p>Good news: most of the hard work is done.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">SEO Auto Linker</a> will handle pretty much everything from here.</p>
<p>But, first things first, you need to <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">install the plugin</a>.</p>
<p>Once installed, go to the plugin page in your WP dashboard and click <em>Add New Link</em>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Automatic_Links___The_SEO_Project___WordPress.png" alt="Automatic Links The SEO Project WordPress" /></p>
<p>Next, go back to your Google Sheet and select the tab labeled “#2 &#8211; For WP”.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/1_-_quick__n__dirty_-_Google_Sheets-1.png" alt="1 quick n dirty Google Sheets 1" /></p>
<p>This sheet pulls all of the keywords you entered into a neat list that you can then paste into WordPress.</p>
<p>All you have to do is select a URL from the dropdown.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Screen-Recording-2017-08-11-at-07.28-pm.gif" alt="Screen Recording 2017 08 11 at 07.28 pm" /></p>
<p>Copy/paste the URL and all the keywords from the “COPY ME” column into <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">SEO Auto Linker</a>, like this:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Pasted_Image_11_08_2017__19_32.png" alt="Pasted Image 11 08 2017 19 32" /></p>
<p>Click <em>Save</em>.</p>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">SEO Auto Linker</a> will comb through your website looking for occurrences of those keywords in other posts/pages. If it finds any, it’ll automagically add an anchored link to your specific blog post.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: I usually set the <em>Links per Page</em> option to 1, as I don’t want a ton of links on every page — that just looks spammy.</p>
<h3>#2 — The (Better) Manual Internal Linking Process</h3>
<p><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/seo-auto-linker/" target="_blank">SEO Auto Linker</a> works well — the only issue is that you don’t have full control over exactly where these links are placed, as the plugin decides this for you.</p>
<p>In my opinion, it’s much better to do this manually.</p>
<p>That way, you can control exactly where the internal links are placed and ensure they make sense and attract clicks.</p>
<p>Here’s how to do it manually:</p>
<ol>
<li>Create a list of URLs and target keywords.</li>
<li>Use Google to find relevant pages/posts on which to add internal links.</li>
<li>Rinse and repeat whenever you publish new content.</li>
</ol>
<p>I’m not going to go over gathering URLs and primary keywords again — simply use the methods laid out earlier in the post to do this.</p>
<p>However, I have created an alternate Google Sheet for this process, so I recommend making a copy of this and using it-</p>
<p>Here’s how it should look when you have your URLs + keywords entered:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Internal_Linking_-_My__Better__Manual_Process_-_Google_Sheets-1.png" alt="Internal Linking My Better Manual Process Google Sheets 1" /></p>
<p>Next, you can use the <em>site: search + target keyword</em> command in Google to find all other pages (from your domain) that Google thinks are relevant to a particular topic.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/site_matthewwoodward_co_uk_product_launch_-http___www_matthewwoodward_co_uk_tutorials_6-figure-product-launch-formula__-_Google_Search.png" alt="site matthewwoodward co uk product launch http www matthewwoodward co uk tutorials 6 figure product launch formula Google Search" /></p>
<p>I’m well-aware that performing this search correctly over and over again can be a bit of a hassle, so I’ve built this into the Google Sheet to make things super straightforward.</p>
<p>Go to the 2nd tab of the sheet named <em>“#2 &#8211; For Google”,</em> select the URL you’re building internal links to from the dropdown, then hit the<em> “Click here”</em> button.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Internal_Linking_-_My__Better__Manual_Process_-_Google_Sheets.png" alt="Internal Linking My Better Manual Process Google Sheets" /></p>
<p>This will take you straight to the Google search — no hassle!</p>
<p>Let’s assume I was looking to build some internal links to my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">6-figure product launch formula</a>.</p>
<p>I would select that URL in the spreadsheet (see above), open the Google search results, then pluck out any pages that would make sense to add internal links from.</p>
<p>Here’s <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-profitable-membership-site-step-step/" target="_blank">a page</a> that fits the bill:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/How_To_Create_A_6_Figure_Membership_Site_Step_By_Step-1.png" alt="How To Create A 6 Figure Membership Site Step By Step 1" /></p>
<p>So, it’s now simply a case of reading through the post and looking for appropriate places to internally link.</p>
<p>This looks like a good place:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/How_To_Create_A_6_Figure_Membership_Site_Step_By_Step-2.png" alt="How To Create A 6 Figure Membership Site Step By Step 2" /></p>
<p>Next, I simply login to my WP dashboard and add a link in that location.</p>
<p>Here’s the final result:</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/How_To_Create_A_6_Figure_Membership_Site_Step_By_Step.png" alt="How To Create A 6 Figure Membership Site Step By Step" /></p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: I only recommend adding 1 link per page, so when you’re done, head back to the SERPs and look for more internal linking opportunities.</p>
<p>Rinse and repeat this process for each page on your website.</p>
<p><strong>Important tip:</strong> Do this process every time you publish a new blog post or web page on your website. Not only will this lead to Google indexing the page much quicker, it’ll also give it a much needed ranking boost.</p>
<h2>#3 &#8211; BONUS: Power Process</h2>
<p>Is there a particular page you want to rank above all others, yet it’s nowhere to be seen in the SERPs?</p>
<p>If so, you <em>need</em> my power process.</p>
<p>Here’s how it works:</p>
<ol>
<li>Find the most powerful pages on your website using <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ahrefs</a> (free 14-day free trial available <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>).</li>
<li>Add internal links from these pages to your target web page.</li>
</ol>
<p>That’s it.</p>
<p>Here’s how to do it:</p>
<p>Let’s say I wanted to boost rankings for my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/serped/" target="_blank">SERPed Ninja SEO Tools tutorial</a>.</p>
<p>I would first need to find relevant, powerful pages on my website from which to add internal links from.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Ahrefs</a> can help with this.</p>
<p>Go to <a href="https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer" target="_blank">Ahrefs Site Explorer</a> and enter your domain (register for your 14-day free trial <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Site_Explorer.png" alt="Site Explorer" /></p>
<p>Choose the <em>“Best By Links”</em> report from the <em>“Pages”</em> section on the left-hand menu.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Best_by_links__matthewwoodward_co_uk_on_Ahrefs.png" alt="Best by links matthewwoodward co uk on Ahrefs" /></p>
<p>This will show you a list of the most powerful pages on your website, ordered by # of referring domains (i.e. backlinks). In general, more backlinks = more power.</p>
<p>Look through this list and make a note of any pages that you could potentially add an internal link from. Make sure they’re relevant!</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Best_by_links__http___matthewwoodward_co_uk_on_Ahrefs.png" alt="Best by links http matthewwoodward co uk on Ahrefs" /></p>
<p>Right away, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/backlink-checkers-compared-ahrefs-majestic-seo-seomoz-raven-tools-seo-spyglass/" target="_blank">my comparison of backlink checkers</a> stands out.</p>
<p>With 110 referring domains, it’s certainly powerful. </p>
<p>And, because SERPed actually pulls in data from some of the backlink checkers I mention on that page, this would be the perfect page from which to mention (and add a link to) my <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/serped/" target="_blank">SERPed guide</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/SERPed_net__All-in-One_SEO_Tools_Suite_for_Advanced_SEO.png" alt="SERPed net All in One SEO Tools Suite for Advanced SEO" /></p>
<p>Looking at the page and scrolling down:</p>
<p>I think the conclusion would be the perfect place to add the link.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Which_Is_The_Best_Backlink_Checker_Tool__The_Results_Are_In_.png" alt="Which Is The Best Backlink Checker Tool The Results Are In " /></p>
<p>Why? Because I mention Majestic (i.e. one of the tools SERPed pulls data from). </p>
<p>I also talk about positives and negatives for each of the backlink checkers, so perhaps I could mention that SERPed kills two birds with one stone by pulling in data from more than one of these tools?</p>
<p>Adding a relevant internal link like this would give this page a <em>huge</em> boost.</p>
<p>But there’s no need to stop there; keep working your way down the list of top pages on Ahrefs — there may be other pages you can add an internal link from. </p>
<p>This will give the page even more of a boost!</p>
<p><strong>Important</strong>: Just make sure to vary the anchor text between pages!</p>
<h2>Wrapping It Up</h2>
<p>Internal linking is crazily powerful — don’t neglect it!</p>
<p>Plus, unlike regular ol’ <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tips/seo-link-building-tips/" target="_blank">link building</a> (from external websites), internal links are entirely under your full control. </p>
<p>You can decide where they’re placed, what anchor text they use and which pages they link to.</p>
<p>Given the fact that you can implement a smart internal linking strategy within a few hours, I strongly recommend you give this a shot right now.</p>
<p>Let me know how it goes! :)</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/">Increase Search Traffic With These 3 Internal Link Building Strategies</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/HCkQGyj6W7g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/--veU11onUk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/-8Kbp4FIAao" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/b2nBK3wYN-Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Z0Fm6pAQFds" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/fAUKhQUdmNE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/wlWH-lQC3dA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/s5yxFW4sGwQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/fBa4vW7DW8A" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/6cYWHDnNaPY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/08S1s4JqHtM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xqtKRJOje04" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ljaeXOwJRDA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/-hDShD9iXyk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/YDqsun2Q6DQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/lBZUaIaqW7Q" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/yAK5xd2uiok" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/rHCD1aGtaSk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/e7emoANHGrM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/jSzeyDzmvBk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/2xFryxD5b6w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsCase StudyHow ToLink BuildingSEOTue, 17 Oct 2017 16:56:00 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/internal-link-building/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=49606Matthew Woodward2017-10-17T16:56:00ZMonthly Income, Growth & Traffic Report – September 2017http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/kdPHY-aJPWM/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2017/feed/2https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2017/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/qug7jlNBVRI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/X3Xq4ooyeb0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/7zgMezn_Eo4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/hJnhC-ImOYg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/e3sUQ0ybk2c/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/c8eLH5vGL-U/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/hRD3P17AzsM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/uLPEVrI3ocQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/zSHdG7b1t54/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/88KWLCUIe7I/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ePgCaH0Vm1M/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xSmP5jYPoHU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/gLe1xv2xnHg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/iY8xy51LiSI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/nXOXg9y4_PY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/pb-Cvm5Mfng/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/fzfXdIHkTDw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/H_1mwq1P3xc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/atSBSA5ESc4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/trZEF3Tqrms/<p>This is the 60th income report as part of the zero backlink experiment. Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there. These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do. What I Have Done In September For me September was all about preparing for the JV launch of my product. Every minute of every day was dedicated to that sole project and what a wild ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – September 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>This is the 60th <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-reports/" target="_blank">income report</a> as part of the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/google-webmaster-guidelines-experiment/" target="_blank">zero backlink experiment</a>.</p>
<p>Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there.</p>
<p>These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do.</p>
<h2>What I Have Done In September</h2>
<p>For me September was all about preparing for the JV launch of my product.</p>
<p>Every minute of every day was dedicated to that sole project and what a wild ride it was.</p>
<h2>Content Creation</h2>
<p>As I was focused on the product launch during September, I didn&#8217;t pay much attention to blog content.</p>
<p>In fact this month was the worst month ever in terms of total content published.</p>
<p>But don&#8217;t fret &#8211; I already have the next 6 weeks of content scheduled out and locked in to make up for that.</p>
<h2>Quuu Promote Experiment Failure</h2>
<p>You may have heard of Quuu before &#8211; basically you can either sign up to get hand reviewed content suggestions relevant to your niche to share on social media easily.</p>
<p>Or you can sign up to submit your post to be reviewed as a content suggestions which takes seconds to do.</p>
<p>So after submitting 9 posts to the platform, I started to see some very encouraging results-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095527_AM-897x865.jpg" alt="" width="897" height="865" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49733" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095527_AM-897x865.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095527_AM-618x596.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095527_AM.jpg 906w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>According to Quuu across my 9 posts I have had a total of-</p>
<ul>
<li>6,808 shares</li>
<li>2,572 clicks</li>
</ul>
<p>Incredible right!?</p>
<p>So knowing that the Quuu platform adds Google Analytics campaign tracking to the links, I jumped into Google Analytics.</p>
<p>I was excited!</p>
<p>But thats the the problem with expectation-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095956_AM-897x533.jpg" alt="" width="897" height="533" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49735" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095956_AM-897x533.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095956_AM-618x367.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Screenshot_101117_095956_AM.jpg 1274w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>The reality is they sent 1 visit.</p>
<p>With 100% bounce rate.</p>
<p>And zero seconds on site.</p>
<p>So is Quuu just jacking peoples money and faking stats?</p>
<p>I would like to find out.</p>
<p><strong>If you use Quuu promote <a href="https://goo.gl/forms/VRtn4eWA6CZgmrEw2" rel="noopener" target="_blank">please fill out this form</a>.</strong></p>
<h2>Learning Video The Hard Way</h2>
<p>Whilst preparing for the launch I ran into a huge amount of problems.</p>
<p>The main problem was not being properly prepared.</p>
<p>I wanted to re-record all of the launch videos and last time I did it with a GoPro and an iPad.</p>
<p>That worked great when I was filming outside but inside it was a different story and I very quickly learned the importance of lighting.</p>
<p>After many stressful days a friend came through and lent me some equipment-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-09-11-08.53.261-897x505.jpg" alt="" width="897" height="505" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49737" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-09-11-08.53.261-897x505.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/2017-09-11-08.53.261-618x348.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>After learning this lesson the hard way I am going to fly to the states later this month to pickup everything I need to build a full video studio.</p>
<p>Unfortunately I can&#8217;t just press a few buttons on Amazon and have it all show up here.</p>
<p>Re-recording the launch videos was very stressful and where I had planned for 3 days of work it ended up being 2 weeks of work.</p>
<p>But with that said, I am going to be producing much more video content in the future across the blog &#8211; stay tuned :)</p>
<h2>Crunching The Numbers</h2>
<p>So let&#8217;s get our hands dirty and see how the blog has actually performed this month.</p>
<h3>Visitor Statistics</h3>
<p>Last month traffic dropped to 56,457 (1,821/day) but this month it jumped to 72,072 (2,402/day) largely due to increased Facebook spend.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-general-897x485.png" alt="" width="897" height="485" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49742" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-general-897x485.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-general-618x334.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-general.png 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h3>Most Popular Content</h3>
<p>I really slacked off on content production this month.</p>
<p>The content piece that stole the show was actually a post I was using to generate leads for the launch, but I have removed that now.</p>
<p>So technically that means the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" target="_blank">guide to making money with Fiverr</a> stole the top spot again!</p>
<p>Closely followed by my awesome guide to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/">choose the best WordPress theme for you</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-content-897x509.png" alt="" width="897" height="509" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49743" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-content-897x509.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-content-618x350.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-content.png 963w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h3>Top Traffic Sources</h3>
<p>Not much has changed in traffic sources with a good mix of traffic coming from Google organic and social sources.</p>
<p>An interesting note, I saw a huge leap in YouTube traffic the past months AFTER deleting YouTube Cards I had previously setup.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic.png" alt="" width="863" height="582" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49745" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic.png 863w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-traffic-618x417.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 863px) 100vw, 863px" /></p>
<h3>Search Engine Traffic</h3>
<p>Last month search increased slightly to 44,121 (1,423/day) which has continued to increase this month to 43,483 (1,449/day).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-kws.png" alt="" width="878" height="627" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49746" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-kws.png 878w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-kws-618x441.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px" /></p>
<h3>YouTube Views</h3>
<p>I lost all of my historical YouTube views because of changes I made to the branding &#8211; so I keep track of them separately. </p>
<p>YouTube views decreased from 13,746 to 12,346 this month.</p>
<p>Total minutes watch also dropped to 53,661!</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-yt2-897x768.png" alt="" width="897" height="768" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49748" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-yt2-897x768.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-yt2-618x529.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/sep-yt2.png 1164w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h3>Social Shares</h3>
<p>I am having a problem with Google+ data today, I will come back and update this section.</p>
<p><strike>This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 83,925 to 85,635.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/108557308721097082569/posts" target="_blank"><strong>Google+</strong></a> &#8211; 27,673 (27,307 last month)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MatthewWoodward.co.uk" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a> &#8211; 57,962 (56,618 last month)</li>
</ul>
<p></strike></p>
<h3>Subscribers</h3>
<p>The most important metric on the entire blog &#8211; earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.</p>
<p>There are now a total of 131,550 subscribers across all of the various channels compared to last months 130,333!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>E-mail</strong> &#8211; 8,207 (790 last month) / Total: 62,955</li>
<li><strong>Twitter</strong> &#8211; 320 (190 last month) / Total: 16,884</li>
<li><strong>YouTube</strong> &#8211; 184 (96 last month) / Total: 15,051</li>
<li><strong>Facebook</strong> &#8211; 3,684 (177 last month) / Total: 30,668</li>
<li><strong>Google+</strong> &#8211; -4 (-10 last month) / Total: 17,823</li>
<li><strong>RSS</strong> &#8211; 7 (-26 last month) / Total: 567</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Income Report</h2>
<p>Here are the numbers you really want to see-</p>
<p><strong>Affiliate Earnings</strong></p>
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<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/apply-now/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MTTB</a></strong> &#8211; $1,463.06</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/MyThemeShop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MyThemeShop</a></strong> &#8211; $388.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/NinjaOutreach/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NinjaOutreach</a></strong> &#8211; $388.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/onehourindexing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OneHourIndexing</a></strong> &#8211; $267.20 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/index-backlinks-easily-revealing-case-study-results/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/pandabot/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PandaBot</a></strong> &#8211; $195.48 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/rank-website-fake-usage-metrics-no-backlinks-required/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PBNPremium/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PBNPremium</a></strong> &#8211; $1.90</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PowerUpHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PowerUpHosting</a></strong> &#8211; $2.39</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/privateinternetaccess/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrivateInternetAccess</a></strong> &#8211; $34.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PrizeRebel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrizeRebel</a></strong> &#8211; $10.71 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ProductLaunchFormula/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ProductLaunchFormula</a></strong> &#8211; $1,116.40</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Proxyhub/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Proxyhub</a></strong> &#8211; $0.85</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/raven/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raven Tools</a></strong> &#8211; $20.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/backlink-checkers-compared-ahrefs-majestic-seo-seomoz-raven-tools-seo-spyglass/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SamCart/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SamCart</a></strong> &#8211; $99.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/semrush/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEMRush</a></strong> &#8211; $2,640.61 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/semrush/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/seocontentmachine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Content Machine</a></strong> &#8211; $61.88 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/seo-content-machine-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEODominators/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEODominators</a></strong> &#8211; $29.70</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOPowerSuite" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Powersuite</a></strong> &#8211; $135.55 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/seo-powersuite-review-essential-seo-tools/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOClerks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Clerks</a></strong> &#8211; $25.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOMonitor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Monitor</a></strong> &#8211; $250.69</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serpbook/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERP Book</a></strong> &#8211; $14.16</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serped/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERPed</a></strong> &#8211; $1,497.28 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/serped/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/siteground/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Siteground</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SociSynd/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SociSynd</a></strong> &#8211; $17.26</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SwagBucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SwagBucks</a></strong> &#8211; $6.31</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TemplateMonster/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TemplateMonster</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TBS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TheBestSpinner</a></strong> &#8211; $253.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/advanced-article-spinning-techniques-with-the-best-spinner/" target="_blank">tutorial</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/thebestspinner-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ThirstyAffiliates/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ThirstyAffiliates</a></strong> &#8211; $57.74</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ThriveThemes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ThriveThemes</a></strong> &#8211; $36.75</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TrafficPlanetHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TrafficPlanetHosting</a></strong> &#8211; $140.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TweetAttacksPro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TweetAttacksPro</a></strong> &#8211; $160.82 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/double-twitter-traffic/" target="_blank">case study</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/tweetattackspro-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/UD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ultimate Demon</a></strong> &#8211; $23.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/ultimate-demon-review-tutorial/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/ultimate-demon-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">URLProfiler</a></strong> &#8211; $115.67 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/urlprofiler-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/videomakerfx/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VideoMakerFX</a></strong> &#8211; $64.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/wordaitrial/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WordAI</a></strong> &#8211; $39.96</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Expenses</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kinsta/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kinsta Hosting</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip</a></strong> &#8211; $400.50</li>
<li><strong>Facebook Advertising</strong> &#8211; $2,251.56 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/facebook-advertising-lead-generation/" target="_blank">Case Study</a>)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Consultation Earnings</h3>
<p>I separate out the consultation earnings from the affiliate earnings. The blog drives affiliate sales directly and whilst it does generate consultation leads these are separate projects in their own right.</p>
<p>This month I didn&#8217;t taken on any consultation work so made a grand total of nothing!</p>
<h3>Other Income</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m working on another project right now that is part of the blog but not something I&#8217;m ready to talk about publicly yet or maybe ever. </p>
<p>I will declare the income here though as it wouldn&#8217;t be possible without the blog and &#8216;technically&#8217; it is affiliate income.</p>
<p>Last month this was $12,929.53 which decreased a little to $12,177.37 this month.</p>
<h4>Earnings Total</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Affiliate Income</strong> &#8211; $14,614.57</li>
<li><strong>Consultation Income</strong> &#8211; $00.00</li>
<li><strong>Other Income</strong> &#8211; $12,177.37</li>
<li><strong>Expenses</strong> &#8211; $2,752.06</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Grand Total:</strong> <u>$24,039.88 / £18,183.77</u> ($23,409.06 / £18,069.45 last month) </p>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Signing Off</h2>
<p>While September was all about preparing and promoting my product launch, October is about sales.</p>
<p>The first couple of weeks will be focused on driving sales and also supporting new students as this is the &#8220;hand holding&#8221; period.</p>
<p>The final two weeks I intend to take a bit of time for myself and start building out a framework to begin growing a team to drive the blog.</p>
<p><strong>Thank you again to everyone that has supported the blog over the years &#8211; you guys are amazing!</strong></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – September 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/qug7jlNBVRI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/X3Xq4ooyeb0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/7zgMezn_Eo4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/hJnhC-ImOYg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/e3sUQ0ybk2c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/c8eLH5vGL-U" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/hRD3P17AzsM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/uLPEVrI3ocQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/zSHdG7b1t54" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/88KWLCUIe7I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ePgCaH0Vm1M" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xSmP5jYPoHU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/gLe1xv2xnHg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/iY8xy51LiSI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/nXOXg9y4_PY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/pb-Cvm5Mfng" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/fzfXdIHkTDw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/H_1mwq1P3xc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/atSBSA5ESc4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/trZEF3Tqrms" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/kdPHY-aJPWM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Income ReportThu, 12 Oct 2017 10:28:26 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2017/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=49729Matthew Woodward2017-10-12T10:28:26ZDownload My 6 Figure Product Launch Checklisthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ov4HdY8Fj44/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/product-launch-checklist/feed/32https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/product-launch-checklist/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/A7UdrM_I6a0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/vghBiVbnWpY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/KKrYb9Knozs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/IUBpdcC0oW4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/VtjT5kxgL5c/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/NmunsLKsGp8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/GShTfERcyFA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/R05YqkLNjLU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xYJHw4hQ1ao/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/zGY3n5ruu2k/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/-_u1pT6zgFc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/B4lqlfxv7Z0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/AUh6TiPZf48/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Hxj5NA1NjJ8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/WWhevx9lydo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/bTrqs2pzrqI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/dJQpze4Fjh8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/BID7Z6-ZcPc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/a7wo6r5HfQo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/kf-02wOrSIo/<p>If you want a stress free launch that maximizes profits then you need to create your own product launch checklist. That might sound like hard work, but I am going to share my personal product launch checklist with you later in this post. This is the same product launch plan that I used to generate $134,171 in just 6 days. What You Will Learn The 7 stages of a 6 figure product launch How to get people excited about your product The strategy that delivered $56,369 of sales on the last day Download a copy of my personal product launch ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/product-launch-checklist/">Download My 6 Figure Product Launch Checklist</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>If you want a stress free launch that maximizes profits then you need to create your own product launch checklist.</p>
<p>That might sound like hard work, but I am going to share my personal product launch checklist with you later in this post.</p>
<p>This is the same product launch plan that <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">I used to generate $134,171 in just 6 days</a>.</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>The 7 stages of a 6 figure product launch</li>
<li>How to get people excited about your product</li>
<li>The strategy that delivered $56,369 of sales on the last day</li>
<li>Download a copy of my personal product launch checklist</li>
</ul>
<h2>The 7 Stages Of A 6 Figure Product Launch</h2>
<p>Before I give you a copy of my product launch checklist, it is important that you understand all 7 stages of a successful product launch-</p>
<ol>
<li>Pre-Pre Launch (this is the secret sauce everyone misses)</li>
<li>Prelaunch Content Release #1</li>
<li>Prelaunch Content Release #2</li>
<li>Prelaunch Content Release #3</li>
<li>Open Cart / Sales Video Release</li>
<li>Closing The Cart</li>
<li>Post Launch Management</li>
</ol>
<p>I am going to explain each of the stages along with real examples from my own 6 figure product launch to give you a better picture of how it all fits together.</p>
<p>Until you understand each stage, my product launch checklist won&#8217;t make any sense at all.</p>
<h3>Step #1 &#8211; The Pre-Pre Launch</h3>
<p>The pre-pre launch is the most important part of the entire product launch but is often overlooked entirely.</p>
<p>It serves a few important purposes-</p>
<ul>
<li>To finalise your product and offer</li>
<li>To identify any objections to your product (reasons people won&#8217;t buy)</li>
<li>To collect testimonials</li>
<li>To build excitement &#038; anticipation</li>
</ul>
<p>That might sound difficult to do, but trust me &#8211; it is as simple as sending an email and scheduling some social media updates.</p>
<h4>The Shot Across The Bow</h4>
<p>Using <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-formula/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jeff Walkers Shot Across the Bow technique</a>, I sent out the email below.</p>
<p>Take note of how it is written and structured to gently introduce the product and start to build excitement.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_024141_PM-618x450.jpg" alt="shot across the bow email" width="618" height="450" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46169" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_024141_PM-618x450.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_024141_PM.jpg 789w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>That then took people to a survey which continued to build excitement but also asked 2 very important questions-</p>
<ol>
<li>What is your single most important question about private blog networks?</li>
<li>If I could go the extra mile &#038; include something you haven&#8217;t seen before &#8211; what would it be?</li>
</ol>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/survey-618x676.png" alt="product launch plan survey" width="618" height="676" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46172" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/survey-618x676.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/survey.png 794w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>The first question is used to create a list of reasons people would not buy the product so I can tackle those issues head on later on in the product launch.</p>
<p>Here are some of the answers that I received-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_024703_PM.jpg" alt="question 1 answers" width="603" height="296" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46170" /></p>
<p>The second question is purely to help me deliver the best final product possible.</p>
<p>It allows me to see where I might have holes in my teaching or how I can really knock peoples socks off with the product.</p>
<p>Here are some of the answers I received-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_025359_PM-618x208.jpg" alt="Question 2 answers" width="618" height="208" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46171" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_025359_PM-618x208.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_025359_PM.jpg 651w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>As you can see, each of those answers serve to help me to plan the rest of my launch and fine tune my product.</p>
<p>But it didn&#8217;t stop there, on the next page of the survey I implemented <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-formula/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the secret sauce that Jeff Walker teaches</a> to collect testimonials to use during the launch.</p>
<h4>Building Buzz &#038; Excitement</h4>
<p>The other purpose of the pre-pre launch is to build excitement and buzz for your upcoming product.</p>
<p>The way I did that was by teasing people with behind the scenes tidbits of information and photos much like popular TV shows do when they are about to launch a new season.</p>
<p>Here is an example of how I did that-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_030851_PM.jpg" alt="creating buzz part 1" width="606" height="722" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46174" /></p>
<p>Nothing too fancy but enough to start drumming up interest.</p>
<p>Take a look at another example here-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_030819_PM.jpg" alt="creating buzz part 2" width="605" height="713" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-46173" /></p>
<p>I applied the same strategy to every marketing channel I had available to me, including all social networks, emailing people I know and on the blog.</p>
<p>Drip feeding out that teasing content as you approach your launch will get people excited for what is about to come.</p>
<p>You should do the same thing with your product launch!</p>
<h3>Step #2 &#8211; Prelaunch Content Release #1</h3>
<p>I talked about the importance of prelaunch content and how to structure it <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">in my previous post</a>.</p>
<p>When you release the first piece of content you want to make as much noise about it as possible.</p>
<p>You should write down a list of ways that you can promote that first piece of content and then use each of them to their full potential.</p>
<p>For example I had these opportunities-</p>
<ul>
<li>This blogs email list</li>
<li>A new post on this blog</li>
<li>Deploying a header bar across the blog</li>
<li>Deploying an exit popup on the blog</li>
<li>Updating signatures in related forums</li>
<li>Updating my personal email signature</li>
<li>Adding a PS line to all emails in my autoresponder</li>
<li>Contacting people featured in the product</li>
<li>Social networks</li>
<ul>
<li>Facebook</li>
<li>Twitter</li>
<li>Google+</li>
<li>LinkedIn</li>
</ul>
<li>Facebook adverts</li>
<li>Twitter adverts</li>
</ul>
<p>I suggest you make your own list of promotion opportunities to work from!</p>
<p>Then you just need to make a plan of attack like I did with <a href="#checklist">my product launch checklist</a> which you can download below.</p>
<h3>Step #3 &#8211; Prelaunch Content Release #2</h3>
<p>Launching the second piece of prelaunch content is in essence a mirror of launching the first piece.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_054059_PM-618x547.jpg" alt="PLC 2 launch" width="618" height="547" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46188" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_054059_PM-618x547.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_054059_PM-897x794.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_054059_PM.jpg 957w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>The only difference is now you must also send an email to all of the people that opted in to receive the first piece of prelaunch content to let them know the second piece is avaialable.</p>
<p>Again you can see everything I did to promote it step by step in my <a href="#checklist">product launch checklist</a> below.</p>
<h3>Step #4 &#8211; Prelaunch Content Release #3</h3>
<p>As with the first and second prelaunch content releases, you want to maximise exposure of the third release through all available channels.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t be afraid to push your message hard.</p>
<p>Remember, prelaunch content in itself is highly valuable and will knock the socks off anyone that watches it.</p>
<p>At this point in the game, all you have delivered is pure content that helps people so don&#8217;t be afraid to push it as hard as possible.</p>
<h3>Step #5 &#8211; Open Cart / Sales Video Release</h3>
<p>For me, this was the most difficult part of the entire process.</p>
<p>Not because it was actually difficult, but because the day you put the sales video live and open the cart is the culmination of all of your hard work.</p>
<p>If you get it wrong &#8211; it sucks!</p>
<p>But if you get it right, you will make it rain.</p>
<p>Before you rush out to tell everyone that the final video is available and you have opened the cart, you must do one important thing.</p>
<p>And that is to <strong>test everything</strong> AND THEN <strong>test it all again</strong>. Here are a few examples of things you should test-</p>
<ul>
<li>Does the sales page load correctly</li>
<li>Do all of the links to your cart work</li>
<li>Is your payment processor set to &#8220;live&#8221; mode and not stuck in &#8220;test&#8221; mode</li>
<li>Try placing a live order &#8211; doesw everything work as expected?</li>
</ul>
<p>Make a list of everything you need to test ahead of time and then run through it all before you start sending traffic to your final offer.</p>
<p>Trust me, you don&#8217;t want to learn that lesson the hard way!</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/open-cart-618x637.png" alt="open cart" width="618" height="637" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46189" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/open-cart-618x637.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/open-cart-897x925.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/open-cart.png 968w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>Once the cart is open you need to <strong>PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE</strong>.</p>
<p>Promote harder than you have ever promoted in your entire life because the cart is only open for 3-7 days depending on the <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">Product Launch Formula</a> you have used.</p>
<p>That means you have got less than 1 week to make as much bank as possible!</p>
<p>I have shared my entire open cart day promotion plan in the product launch <a href="#checklist">checklist</a> below.</p>
<h3>Step #6 &#8211; Closing The Cart</h3>
<p>Closing the cart might seem like a bad idea, but it&#8217;s important that you create scarcity by taking the product away from the market.</p>
<p>This drives sales absolutely wild, I mean take a look at how my sales were distributed below-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales-618x330.jpg" alt="product launch sales" width="618" height="330" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45972" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales-618x330.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales.jpg 896w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>The last day shows $11,344 in sales but that was just to account for time differences.</p>
<p>In actual fact <strong>the last day made $56,369</strong> which is over 40% of total sales.</p>
<p>To maximize your sales you always want to make sure that you close the cart on a weekday. Avoid closing the cart on a weekend like your life depends on it.</p>
<p>You can take a look at how I closed the cart in <a href="#checklist">my product launch checklist</a> below.</p>
<h3>Step #7 &#8211; Post Launch Management</h3>
<p>After everything is said and done, it&#8217;s very important that you shift your focus to the customer.</p>
<p>Make sure that you follow up with all of your new customers and most importantly, deliver first class customer service.</p>
<p>People will have all sorts of problems from losing their login details to questions about the product itself. Make sure you are available to answer them.</p>
<p>You should take all the questions you get asked and use them to build out an FAQ page that will help serve other customers without duplicating your own workload.</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t stress how important it is to deliver a fantastic customer experience end to end!</p>
<p>There are a couple of things I like to do that helps with that.</p>
<p>First of all I send out a little thank you post card that looks like this-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/postcard-618x347.jpg" alt="postcard" width="618" height="347" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-41439" /></p>
<p>Secondly I have set up my email marketing automation system to congratulate people as they move through the course automatically.</p>
<p>I have also set it up to reach out to them if they haven&#8217;t started the course or stop working through it at any point-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_034942_PM-618x435.jpg" alt="screenshot_110916_034942_pm" width="618" height="435" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-46175" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_034942_PM-618x435.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_034942_PM-897x631.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_110916_034942_PM.jpg 947w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>This will ensure everyone who bought the product, actually consumes the product which will lead to happier customers and significantly less refund requests.</p>
<p>Take time to get your post launch right and you will transform every customer into a raving fan for the lifetime of your business.</p>
<p><a name="checklist"></a> </p>
<h2>My Product Launch Checklist</h2>
<p>So now you understand the 7 parts of a successful launch, I am going to share the exact product launch checklist that I created for my own 6 figure launch with you.</p>
<p>But before I do that, I highly suggest you check out Jeff Walkers <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-blueprint/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">free product launch workshop and download his blueprint</a>.</p>
<p>You will learn how to take everything I have shown you above and put it all together to drive sales wild!</p>
<p>There is also a 22 page PDF that outlines the entire process for you that I highly recommend.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-blueprint/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Click here to watch the product launch blueprint video and download the PDF now</a>.</p>
<h3>My Personal Product Launch Plan Checklist</h3>
<p>For those of you that just want to download my personal product launch checklist, you can do that below-</p>
<h2>Wrapping It Up</h2>
<p>So there you have it!</p>
<p>In the last post I showed you <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">the product launch formula I used to make $134,171 in 6 days</a>.</p>
<p>And in this post I detailed my entire product launch plan by sharing my personal product launch checklist with you.</p>
<p>The only thing left to do is <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">watch the free product launch workshop videos for yourself</a>.</p>
<p>After all, that is precisely how I learned to put together my 6 figure product launch.</p>
<p>I hope you choose to do the same!</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/product-launch-checklist/">Download My 6 Figure Product Launch Checklist</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/A7UdrM_I6a0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/vghBiVbnWpY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/KKrYb9Knozs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/IUBpdcC0oW4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/VtjT5kxgL5c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/NmunsLKsGp8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/GShTfERcyFA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/R05YqkLNjLU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xYJHw4hQ1ao" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/zGY3n5ruu2k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/-_u1pT6zgFc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/B4lqlfxv7Z0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/AUh6TiPZf48" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Hxj5NA1NjJ8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/WWhevx9lydo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/bTrqs2pzrqI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/dJQpze4Fjh8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/BID7Z6-ZcPc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/a7wo6r5HfQo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/kf-02wOrSIo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ov4HdY8Fj44" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsCase StudyHow ToMake MoneyWed, 06 Sep 2017 15:00:55 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/product-launch-checklist/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=46165Matthew Woodward2017-09-06T15:00:55ZMonthly Income, Growth & Traffic Report – August 2017http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/i8rMkF4MqTU/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-august-2017/feed/0https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-august-2017/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/w8fQ9X-kgtM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/bR0Xqls4p5s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/gSyh35d11hw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/9gtHowLZtlc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/fkksFYajOKo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/eb_77hk7qyM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/rIqqszJ7L3g/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/6XWqvwezkXM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/2WaJ7wdYrXs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ooGvQcFOZAw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Ga9ZbFgUm2Y/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/S31UjPjMTzI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/fblSQAsG00Y/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/QBvBMZ2xvpA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/npV-E0MkLFI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/dc86dRysAjA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/DaltN9l9brg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/aH44R0G1DsA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/_ZTEm70A2Ws/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/VHvQmcPtgt4/<p>This is the 59th income report as part of the zero backlink experiment. Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there. These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do. What I Have Done In August After spending July getting all my ducks in a row, August has been full speed ahead! But most of this work hasn&#8217;t been on the blog. Most of it ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-august-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – August 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p><script>
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This is the 59th <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-reports/" target="_blank">income report</a> as part of the <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/google-webmaster-guidelines-experiment/" target="_blank">zero backlink experiment</a>.</p>
<p>Every month I will publish a post like this one that shows you how this blog is progressing and everything I have done across the month to get it there.</p>
<p>These reports will help me track my own progress while teaching you what to do and more importantly what not to do.</p>
<h2>What I Have Done In August</h2>
<p>After spending July getting all my ducks in a row, August has been full speed ahead!</p>
<p>But most of this work hasn&#8217;t been on the blog.</p>
<p>Most of it has been in preparation for my upcoming JV launch along with updating and adding new content to my course.</p>
<p>But I didn&#8217;t ignore the blog completely :)</p>
<h2>Content Creation</h2>
<p>I only 4 new posts last month including the income report.</p>
<p>First I posted a huge update to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/" target="_blank">my email marketing software tutorial</a> along with some live campaigns I am running in Infusionsoft and Drip.</p>
<p>Then I revealed <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/" target="_blank">the best WordPress theme for blogging</a> which although slightly biased &#8211; is based on my experience of making over a million dollars as a blogger!</p>
<p>I also updated <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/" target="_blank">my product launch formula post</a> which takes you behind the scenes of the JV strategy I am using.</p>
<h2>Preparing For My First JV Launch</h2>
<p>I have spent most of the month <a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank">preparing for my first JV launch</a>!</p>
<p>Although I am re-using a lot of old assets, there is still a lot of work to do &#8211; from planning prizes and recording content all the way through to recruiting affiliates.</p>
<p><a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM-618x683.jpg" alt="my jv page" width="618" height="683" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49384" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM-618x683.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM.jpg 862w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>Then theres all of the other things you have to think of like will the hosting hold up to the traffic and so forth.</p>
<p>Just <a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank">the JV page</a> along took 3 days to put together and I&#8217;ve got to re-record every video in the funnel yet!</p>
<p>But when this launches, it should break all of my previous earnings records &#8211; fingers crossed!</p>
<h2>Setup New Drip Campaigns</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-march-2017/" target="_blank">past income reports</a> I have <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-february-2017/" target="_blank">shown you</a> how I am using Drip&#8217;s URL triggers to create campaigns.</p>
<p>Well I have expanded on that a little more this month with some new campaigns.</p>
<p>For example my expired domains tutorial gets a lot of traffic, specifically for people looking for expired domains.</p>
<p>So I <a href="https://mbsy.co/drip/24281931?url=https://www.getdrip.com/shared_workflows/0afbdbaf849443cebf27" target="_blank">decided to setup a campaign</a> that sends a link to the free trial of Domain Hunter Gatherer (my favourite tool to find domains at the moment).</p>
<p><iframe src="https://mbsy.co/drip/24281931?url=https://www.getdrip.com/shared_workflows/0afbdbaf849443cebf27/embed" data-embed="drip-workflow-embed" class="drip-workflow-embed" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" height="1050px" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p>Essentially it works like this</p>
<ul>
<li>Someone visits the URL</li>
<li>5 Minutes later sends an email</li>
<li>If that email isn&#8217;t opened, it sends another 1 day later</li>
</ul>
<p>It&#8217;s really simple, but it&#8217;s really effective and thats <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="why I love Drip">why I love Drip</a>!</p>
<h2>Crunching The Numbers</h2>
<p>So let&#8217;s get our hands dirty and see how the blog has actually performed this month.</p>
<h3>Visitor Statistics</h3>
<p>Last month traffic increased to 65,474 (2,112/day) as I went aggresive with Facebook ad spend.</p>
<p>This month that has dropped to 56,457 (1,821/day).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-overview-618x321.png" alt="" width="618" height="321" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49406" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-overview-618x321.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-overview-897x465.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-overview.png 1236w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Most Popular Content</h3>
<p>The <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" target="_blank">guide to making money with Fiverr</a> stole the top spot again!</p>
<p>I must make a note to review that post and look for opportunities this month!</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/22-social-media-backlinks/" target="_blank">social media link building guide</a> also held it&#8217;s own this month.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-topcontent-618x351.png" alt="" width="618" height="351" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49409" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-topcontent-618x351.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-topcontent-897x509.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-topcontent.png 990w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Top Traffic Sources</h3>
<p>Not much has changed in traffic sources with a good mix of traffic coming from Google organic and social sources.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-trafficsrc-618x403.png" alt="" width="618" height="403" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49410" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-trafficsrc-618x403.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-trafficsrc.png 884w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Search Engine Traffic</h3>
<p>Last month search increased slightly to 44,121 (1,423/day) which has dropped slightly this month to 42,998 (1,387/day).</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-keywords-618x394.png" alt="" width="618" height="394" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49412" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-keywords-618x394.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-keywords.png 886w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>YouTube Views</h3>
<p>I lost all of my historical YouTube views because of changes I made to the branding &#8211; so I keep track of them separately. </p>
<p>YouTube views dropped from 13,746 to 12,909 this month.</p>
<p>That also had an impact on total minutes watched which decrease from 59,907 to 55,520 respectively.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-youtube-618x577.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="577" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49414" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-youtube-618x577.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-youtube-897x837.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/aug-youtube.jpg 903w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Social Shares</h3>
<p>This month the total social shares across Facebook and Google+ increased from 83,925 to 85,635.</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://plus.google.com/108557308721097082569/posts" target="_blank"><strong>Google+</strong></a> &#8211; 27,673 (27,307 last month)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MatthewWoodward.co.uk" target="_blank"><strong>Facebook</strong></a> &#8211; 57,962 (56,618 last month)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Subscribers</h3>
<p>The most important metric on the entire blog &#8211; earning a subscription from someone is the ultimate form of commitment and conversion.</p>
<p>There are now a total of 131,550 subscribers across all of the various channels compared to last months 130,333!</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>E-mail</strong> &#8211; 790 (920 last month) / Total: 54,748</li>
<li><strong>Twitter</strong> &#8211; 190 (154 last month) / Total: 16,564</li>
<li><strong>YouTube</strong> &#8211; 96 (170 last month) / Total: 14,867</li>
<li><strong>Facebook</strong> &#8211; 177 (427 last month) / Total: 26,894</li>
<li><strong>Google+</strong> &#8211; -10 (9 last month) / Total: 17,827</li>
<li><strong>RSS</strong> &#8211; -26 (27 last month) / Total: 560</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Income Report</h2>
<p>Here are the numbers you really want to see-</p>
<p><strong>Affiliate Earnings</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ActiveCampaign" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ActiveCampaign</a></strong> &#8211; $4.60</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ahrefs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ahrefs</a></strong> &#8211; $272.57 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/ahrefs-majestic-seo-1-million-domain-showdown/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Aweber</a></strong> &#8211; $97.80 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/advertise-on-the-blog/" target="_blank">Blog Advertising</a></strong> &#8211; $501.81 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/advertise-on-the-blog/" target="_blank">Advertise</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/bluechipbacklinks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Blue Chip Backlinks</a></strong> &#8211; $200.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/blue-host/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BlueHost</a></strong> &#8211; $195.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Brightspark/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Brightspark</a></strong> &#8211; $26.60</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/BuyProxies" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BuyProxies</a></strong> &#8211; $34.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/BuzzBundle" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BuzzBundle</a></strong> &#8211; $89.55 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/buzzbundle-review-how-i-drive-traffic-to-my-blog/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/CashCrate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CashCrate</a></strong> &#8211; $3.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/cmscommander/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CMS Commander</a></strong> &#8211; $9.62</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ConvertKit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ConvertKit</a></strong> &#8211; $23.40</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/domainhuntergatherer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Domain Hunter Gatherer</a></strong> &#8211; $918.85 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/expired-domains/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip</a></strong> &#8211; $14.70</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/driprevolution/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip Revolution</a></strong> &#8211; $253.36 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/driprevolution-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/fcsnetworker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FCS Networker</a></strong> &#8211; $136.56 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/fcs-networker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/freshdrop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FreshDrop</a></strong> &#8211; $17.82</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GetResponse</a></strong> &#8211; $162.29 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/Gleam/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gleam</a></strong> &#8211; $20.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/gsacaptchabreaker/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA Captcha Breaker</a></strong> &#8211; $873.55 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/gsa-captcha-breaker/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/gsa-captcha-breaker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/GSASearchEngineRanker" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA Search Engine Ranker</a></strong> &#8211; $1,081.63 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/gsa-search-engine-ranker-review-tutorial/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/gsa-search-engine-ranker-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/GSASEOIndexer/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">GSA SEO Indexer</a></strong> &#8211; $117.84</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/HostGator/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HostGator</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ip-vanish/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">IPVanish</a></strong> &#8211; $137.97</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/justhost/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">JustHost</a></strong> &#8211; $160.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/KDPRocket/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">KDP Rocket</a></strong> &#8211; $48.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kontentmachine" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kontent Machine</a></strong> &#8211; $247.10 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/kontent-machine-review-generate-unlimited-unique-content/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/leadpages/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LeadPages</a></strong> &#8211; $20.10</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/LearnDash/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LearnDash</a></strong> &#8211; $55.65</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/LinkEmperor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LinkEmperor</a></strong> &#8211; $83.12</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/longtailpro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">LongTailPro</a></strong> &#8211; $617.21 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/long-tail-pro-keyword-research-tool/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/longtailpro-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/MintVine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MintVine</a></strong> &#8211; $25.42</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/MyThemeShop/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MyThemeShop</a></strong> &#8211; $272.05</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/oiopublisher/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OIO Publisher</a></strong> &#8211; $23.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/how-to-add-banner-advertising-to-your-site-for-extra-income/" target="_blank">case study</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/oiopublisher-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/onehourindexing/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OneHourIndexing</a></strong> &#8211; $299.91 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/index-backlinks-easily-revealing-case-study-results/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/pandabot/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PandaBot</a></strong> &#8211; $166.68 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/rank-website-fake-usage-metrics-no-backlinks-required/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PowerUpHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PowerUpHosting</a></strong> &#8211; $4.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/privateinternetaccess/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrivateInternetAccess</a></strong> &#8211; $34.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/PrizeRebel" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">PrizeRebel</a></strong> &#8211; $19.69 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-survey-sites/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/raven/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Raven Tools</a></strong> &#8211; $20.12 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/backlink-checkers-compared-ahrefs-majestic-seo-seomoz-raven-tools-seo-spyglass/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SamCart/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SamCart</a></strong> &#8211; $198.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/semrush/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEMRush</a></strong> &#8211; $705.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/semrush/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SENuke/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SENuke</a></strong> &#8211; $44.10 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/senuke-xcr-tutorial-review-how-to-build-high-quality-tier-1-links/" target="_blank">tutorial</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/seocontentmachine/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Content Machine</a></strong> &#8211; $40.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/seo-content-machine-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOPowerSuite" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Powersuite</a></strong> &#8211; $364.99 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/seo-powersuite-review-essential-seo-tools/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOClerks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Clerks</a></strong> &#8211; $31.50</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SEOMonitor/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEO Monitor</a></strong> &#8211; $249.94</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serpbook/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERP Book</a></strong> &#8211; $7.41</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/serped/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SERPed</a></strong> &#8211; $1,624.78 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/serped/" target="_blank">review</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/siteground/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Siteground</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SociSynd/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SociSynd</a></strong> &#8211; $17.26</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/SwagBucks/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SwagBucks</a></strong> &#8211; $6.84</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TBS" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TheBestSpinner</a></strong> &#8211; $237.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/advanced-article-spinning-techniques-with-the-best-spinner/" target="_blank">tutorial</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/thebestspinner-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/ThriveThemes/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ThriveThemes</a></strong> &#8211; $225.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TrafficPlanetHosting/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TrafficPlanetHosting</a></strong> &#8211; $210.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/TweetAttacksPro/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TweetAttacksPro</a></strong> &#8211; $167.58 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/experiments/double-twitter-traffic/" target="_blank">case study</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/tweetattackspro-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/UD" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ultimate Demon</a></strong> &#8211; $23.50 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/reviews/ultimate-demon-review-tutorial/" target="_blank">review</a> / <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/ultimate-demon-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/urlprofiler/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">URLProfiler</a></strong> &#8211; $68.14 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/deals/urlprofiler-discount-coupon/" target="_blank">discount coupon</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/videomakerfx/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">VideoMakerFX</a></strong> &#8211; $153.00 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-making-money-fiverr-today-tutorial-case-study/" target="_blank">case study</a>)</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/wordaitrial/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WordAI</a></strong> &#8211; $59.94</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/wpmatic/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">WP Matic</a></strong> &#8211; $189.60</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Expenses</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/kinsta/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Kinsta Hosting</a></strong> &#8211; $100.00</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drip</a></strong> &#8211; $348.00</li>
<li><strong>Facebook Advertising</strong> &#8211; $1,187.62 (<a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/facebook-advertising-lead-generation/" target="_blank">Case Study</a>)</li>
</ul>
<h3>Consultation Earnings</h3>
<p>I separate out the consultation earnings from the affiliate earnings. The blog drives affiliate sales directly and whilst it does generate consultation leads these are separate projects in their own right.</p>
<p>This month I didn&#8217;t taken on any consultation work so made a grand total of nothing!</p>
<h3>Other Income</h3>
<p>I&#8217;m working on another project right now that is part of the blog but not something I&#8217;m ready to talk about publicly yet or maybe ever. </p>
<p>I will declare the income here though as it wouldn&#8217;t be possible without the blog and &#8216;technically&#8217; it is affiliate income.</p>
<p>Last month this was $14,205.76 which increased a little to $12,929.53 this month.</p>
<h4>Earnings Total</h4>
<ul>
<li><strong>Affiliate Income</strong> &#8211; $12,115.15</li>
<li><strong>Consultation Income</strong> &#8211; $00.00</li>
<li><strong>Other Income</strong> &#8211; $12,929.53</li>
<li><strong>Expenses</strong> &#8211; $1,635.62</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Grand Total:</strong> <u>$23,409.06 / £18,069.45</u> ($22,409.01 / £16,954.66 last month) </p>
<p><strong>Unable to post graphs at the moment &#8211; will update asap</strong></p>
<h2>Signing Off</h2>
<p>August has been pedal to the metal and that trend is going to continue into September.</p>
<p>Next week I am going to re-record my entire <a href="http://marketerseal.com/" target="_blank">free training video series</a> as well as record 9 case studies.</p>
<p>That is on top of recruiting/managing affiliates, running the blog and managing a bunch of other moving parts for the <a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank">JV launch</a>.</p>
<p>So keep your eyes peeled for the big reveal of all my hard work on September 22nd!</p>
<p><strong>Thank you again to everyone that has helped this blog breaker the 7 figure barrier &#8211; you guys are amazing!</strong></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-august-2017/">Monthly Income, Growth &#038; Traffic Report – August 2017</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/w8fQ9X-kgtM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/bR0Xqls4p5s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/gSyh35d11hw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/9gtHowLZtlc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/fkksFYajOKo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/eb_77hk7qyM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/rIqqszJ7L3g" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/6XWqvwezkXM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/2WaJ7wdYrXs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ooGvQcFOZAw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Ga9ZbFgUm2Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/S31UjPjMTzI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/fblSQAsG00Y" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/QBvBMZ2xvpA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/npV-E0MkLFI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/dc86dRysAjA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/DaltN9l9brg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/aH44R0G1DsA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/_ZTEm70A2Ws" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/VHvQmcPtgt4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/i8rMkF4MqTU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>Income ReportFri, 01 Sep 2017 17:42:45 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-august-2017/#respondhttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=49396Matthew Woodward2017-09-01T17:42:45ZThe Product Launch Formula I Used To Make $134,171 In 6 Dayshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LUD3t41NEh0/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/feed/96https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/f-BWl-LPX3I/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/B5Ut6IPR2lo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/J605Bls3Txc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/wyGWs871LVY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/NFkqEUWKXgY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Z41XA70Ykio/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/wpFOaYpX1lU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/0sc78voPacU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xV7rCz9eaBY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/XDcfYhLRIDU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/BKiBAphlvDI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/TX934J3jiZw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/zHAsO-hJT3I/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/nHy4MgxdM9k/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/1x71aTuaDzM/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/q9621dZ8oUg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/pqwQ3FLLaSc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Irj2u4lf3S8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/qqVKMWaeFtg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/535fstbaCAc/<p>Just under a year ago, I put together my very first product launch for the blog and honestly at that time &#8211; I had no idea how to launch a product properly. Even as an experienced digital marketer it was a daunting task with a lot of moving parts that left me feeling confused and pretty helpless. I spent countless hours searching for the perfect product launch formula and boy did I find it because my very first product launch made $134,171 in just 6 days! So today, for the first time ever &#8211; I am going to take you ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/">The Product Launch Formula I Used To Make $134,171 In 6 Days</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Just under a year ago, I put together my very first product launch for the blog and honestly at that time &#8211; I had no idea how to launch a product properly.</p>
<p>Even as an experienced digital marketer it was a daunting task with a lot of moving parts that left me feeling confused and pretty helpless.</p>
<p>I spent countless hours searching for the perfect product launch formula and boy did I find it because <strong>my very first product launch made $134,171 in just 6 days</strong>!</p>
<p>So today, for the first time ever &#8211; I am going to take you behind the scenes of my product launch. In fact, this is the first time I publicly revealed how much money it made.</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>How I made $134,671 in just 6 days</li>
<li>The exact product launch formula I used step by step</li>
<li>How to layer mental triggers to make people buy like crazy</li>
<li>A behind the scenes look at how I put it all together</li>
<li>How I am <strong>taking it to the next level</strong> with a JV launch</li>
<li>And most importantly&#8230; how you can achieve the same success!</li>
</ul>
<h2>Putting My Money On The Table</h2>
<p>Before we get into the meat of things, let&#8217;s talk about the money because I know that&#8217;s all anyone is really interested in.</p>
<p>In total the product launch generated $134,171 in sales in just 6 days which was broken down like this-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Day 1:</strong> $30,027</li>
<li><strong>Day 2:</strong> $15,264</li>
<li><strong>Day 3:</strong> $9,810</li>
<li><strong>Day 4:</strong> $22,701</li>
<li><strong>Day 5:</strong> $45,025</li>
<li><strong>Day 6:</strong> $11,344</li>
</ul>
<p>That is right! On day 5 alone, I made over $45,000! </p>
<p>It would have taken me a year to earn that in my previous corporate job, but I made that in just 1 day using the product launch formula I&#8217;m about to introduce you to.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/samcart-sales-618x726.png" alt="product launch formula sales stats" width="618" height="726" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45945" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/samcart-sales-618x726.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/samcart-sales.png 896w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>Now I know you might be wondering why the sales spiked so hard on day 5 and that is because I took the product off the market to create scarcity.</p>
<p>The trickle of sales you see on day 6 is just the difference in global timezones.</p>
<p>So technically it made over $56,000 on the final day.</p>
<p>Only making the product available to buy for 5 days might seem crazy, but that is part of the bigger product launch formula that I am going to share with you later.</p>
<h2>But What About The Product Itself?</h2>
<p>Before I introduce you to the product launch formula I used to achieve those results, I want to tell you a little about the product I launched.</p>
<p>My regular readers have probably already figured this out &#8211; but the product was my <a href="http://marketerseal.com/" target="_blank">Private Blog Network Specialist Certification</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screenshot_103116_103407_AM-618x500.jpg" alt="private blog network specialist certification" width="618" height="500" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45946" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screenshot_103116_103407_AM-618x500.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screenshot_103116_103407_AM-897x726.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screenshot_103116_103407_AM.jpg 1169w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>I put the course together because I kept seeing the same questions/problems coming up about Private Blog Networks and I had wealth of experience to share on the topic.</p>
<p>In total the course is made up of-</p>
<ul>
<li>10 modules</li>
<li>53 lessons</li>
<li>39 videos</li>
<li>6 printable cheat sheets</li>
<li>6 exams</li>
</ul>
<p>As you can appreciate that took some time to put together, which is why it was crucial that the product launch itself went well.</p>
<p>If you want to learn how to create your own product, you could read <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/create-launch-product-wso/" target="_blank">this</a>, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/start-profitable-membership-site-step-step/" target="_blank">this</a> or <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/make-money-online-ultimate-list-methods/#sellownproducts" target="_blank">this</a>.</p>
<h3>The Tech Behind The Product</h3>
<p>I know some of you will be wondering how I put the actual product together, so this is what I used-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/learndash/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="LearnDash">LearnDash</a></strong> &#8211; This is the WordPress plugin I used to make the course itself and structure it. LearnDash has a bunch of awesome features &#038; integrates with a range of payment processors and membership platforms.</li>
<li><strong><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/samcart/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="SamCart">SamCart</a></strong> &#8211; I used SamCart for the checkout as it integrated with lots of payment processors so I could switch them out in 1 click if I had a problem but it also made setting up payments plans and split testing the checkout design easy.</li>
</ul>
<p>I may do a more detailed tutorial about the technical setup in the future, including how I automatically send out physical items like this postcard-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/postcard-618x347.jpg" alt="postcard" width="618" height="347" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-41439" /></p>
<p>But for now, let&#8217;s focus on the product launch itself because that makes the difference between making no money and making a ton of money!</p>
<p>And you want to make a ton of money right?</p>
<h2>The Perfect Product Launch Formula</h2>
<p>I&#8217;m going to be honest with you.</p>
<p>Creating the product was easy, but when it came down to actually launching the product, I was like a deer caught in the headlights.</p>
<p>You see, I didn&#8217;t really know how to launch a product and I certainly didn&#8217;t know where to start!</p>
<p>On top of that as an experienced marketer I understood that trying to sell anything online these days is difficult because everyone is walking around with a super sensitive &#8220;BS Detector&#8221;.</p>
<p>But I was determined to break 6 figures with my first product launch and have the most profitable week of my life.</p>
<p>After making $134,171 in just 6 days, I&#8217;m pretty confident that I nailed it and that success was <strong>purely</strong> down to discovering the sideways sales letter.</p>
<h3>Introducing The Sideways Sales Letter</h3>
<p>After countless days of research, I decided to implement <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Sideways Sales Letter technique</a> which was created by Jeff Walker.</p>
<p>I highly recommend you <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="watch his free training video that explains it all step by step"><strong>watch his free training videos that explain it all step by step</strong></a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-video-618x348.jpg" alt="jeff walker training video" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45956" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-video-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-video.jpg 750w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>I remember when I first watched that video, it completely blew my mind and opened my eyes to the <em>new world of selling</em> &#038; how to layer mental triggers to drive sales crazy.</p>
<p>And for those of you that are wondering who Jeff Walker is, he is the king of product launches. His strategy has been used to generate over $500 million dollars in niches like juggling, tennis coaching &#038; internet marketing.</p>
<p>In fact, you have probably been the victim of his sales strategies over the past decade without even knowing it.</p>
<p>Essentially he took the traditional long form sales letter and turned it on it&#8217;s side.</p>
<p>Instead of having a single 10 page sales letter, he splits it up into a series of contacts over a number of days with individual pieces of prelaunch content which ends in a sales pitch.</p>
<p>Sounds complicated right?</p>
<p>Well don&#8217;t worry because it&#8217;s super simple and Jeff does a much better job of <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">explaining it in these free training videos</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-pre-launch-content-618x347.jpg" alt="how to launch a product with Jeff Walker" width="618" height="347" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45964" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-pre-launch-content-618x347.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/jeff-pre-launch-content.jpg 854w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>In essence it&#8217;s just 3 pieces of compelling, valuable pieces of content that is followed by a sales message.</p>
<p>The idea is that you deliver so much value across the 3 pieces of prelaunch content that people are ready to hand over their money by the time you make the actual sales pitch.</p>
<p>Before you continue <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>you must watch Jeff&#8217;s free videos</strong></a> or the rest of what I&#8217;m going to share with you won&#8217;t make any sense.</p>
<p>And trust me when I tell you that he knows what he is talking about, his last launch made over a million dollars in a single hour!</p>
<h3>Behind The Scenes Of My Prelaunch Content</h3>
<p>So now you&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">watched the videos</a> &#038; understand the entire sideways sales letter concept &#038; how to take advantage of the mental triggers that make us buy things.</p>
<p>Now I am going to take you behind the scenes of my own prelaunch content to give you a tangible real world example.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the videos</a> Jeff explained the different types of content we can use. I chose to use 4 videos to deliver the content and sales message.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_5165-618x464.jpg" alt="video recording" width="618" height="464" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45962" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_5165-618x464.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_5165-897x673.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/IMG_5165.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>As you can see, I used an iPad as a teleprompter, a GoPro and a lavalier microphone to record the videos. These videos are also the only time you&#8217;ll ever see me in a shirt.</p>
<p>What really counts though, is how the videos were structured as part of the sideways sales letter. </p>
<p>Each video introduces a problem, a solution and then another problem through story telling, education &#038; TV like cliff hangers. </p>
<p>All of which eventually leads into the final video &#038; sales pitch.</p>
<p>This is how I structured my sideways sales letter-</p>
<h4>Prelaunch Content Video #1</h4>
<p>The first piece of prelaunch content is critical because it has to grab peoples attention and answer &#8220;why&#8221;.</p>
<p>Why should people listen to you, why should they pay attention to you, why should they care?</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC1-618x348.jpg" alt="product launch video 1" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45958" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC1-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC1-897x505.jpg 897w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>To do that you need to focus on the <em>opportunity for transformation or change</em>.</p>
<p>Essentially you are communicating how someones life will change for the better if they listen to you &#038; what you have to say.</p>
<p>This is how I structured it-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Title:</strong> &#8220;How To Increase Traffic &#038; Rankings With The Most Powerful Backlink On The Planet&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Mental Triggers:</strong> Authority, Reciprocity, Credibility, Proof, Anticipation</li>
<li><strong>Launch Story Theme:</strong> Reluctant hero</li>
<li><strong>The Problem:</strong> Viewers have no traffic, no search engine rankings &#038; confused by SEO</li>
<li><strong>The Solution:</strong> Introduce private blog networks</li>
<li><strong>Introduce The Next Problem:</strong> How do you build a private blog network?</li>
</ul>
<p>If you don&#8217;t know what mental triggers are, then you need to go back and <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">watch Jeff&#8217;s free training videos</a>.</p>
<h4>Prelaunch Content Video #2</h4>
<p>The first piece of prelaunch content focused on the &#8220;why&#8221;. The second piece of content is all about the &#8220;what&#8221;.</p>
<p>What is the transformation or opportunity that will change the viewers life?</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC2-618x348.jpg" alt="product launch formula video 2" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45959" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC2-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/PLC2-897x505.jpg 897w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>This video has a heavy focus on teaching and I really went overboard with what I taught in this video.</p>
<p>This is how I structured it-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Title:</strong> &#8220;How To Create As Many Authoritative Links As You Want To Seriously Increase Your Websites Traffic&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Mental Triggers:</strong> Community, Relatable, Proof, Controversy, Emotion</li>
<li><strong>Launch Story Theme:</strong> Loss &#038; Redemption combined with The Underdog</li>
<li><strong>The Problem:</strong> How do you build a private blog network?</li>
<li><strong>The Solution:</strong> Show people a top down view of the process over my shoulder</li>
<li><strong>Introduce The Next Problem:</strong> Getting caught by Google &#038; how to avoid detection</li>
</ul>
<p>As you can see, in each video I am introducing a problem, the solution to that problem and then closing with the next problem.</p>
<p>That creates an <em>&#8220;open loop&#8221;</em> which keeps people in suspense for the next video, much like your favorite TV series always leaves you on a cliff hanger.</p>
<h4>Prelaunch Content Video #3</h4>
<p>The last 2 videos answered the &#8220;why&#8221; and the &#8220;what&#8221; &#8211; the third video shifts focus to the &#8220;how&#8221;.</p>
<p>It is also designed to shift into the product ownership experience and really dial down exactly how it will change the viewers life.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/plc3-618x348.jpg" alt="product launch video 3" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45960" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/plc3-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/plc3-897x505.jpg 897w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>At this point I&#8217;ve already introduced people to private blog networks with a top down view of how to build them.</p>
<p>This video shows them how to avoid getting caught, but it doesn&#8217;t show them how to put all of the pieces of puzzle together.</p>
<p>This is how it was structured-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Title:</strong> &#8220;My Secret Strategies To Fly Under The Radar &#038; Remain Undetected For Complete Ranking Domination&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Mental Triggers:</strong> Social proof, Proof, Simplicity</li>
<li><strong>Launch Story Theme:</strong> Discovery</li>
<li><strong>The Problem:</strong> Getting caught by Google &#038; how to avoid detection</li>
<li><strong>The Solution:</strong> Understanding footprints</li>
<li><strong>Introduce The Next Problem:</strong> How to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together</li>
</ul>
<h4>The Sales Video</h4>
<p>The last 3 videos were designed to take people on an educational journey by delivering huge amounts of value through story telling while simultaneously touching on key mental triggers.</p>
<p>You might not realise it by reading through these notes, but I can&#8217;t stress enough just how much value I delivered in the first 3 videos. </p>
<p>I ensured that I delivered actual tangible content with real substance that would change peoples lives if implemented.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/salesvideo-618x348.jpg" alt="product launch sales video" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45961" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/salesvideo-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/salesvideo-897x505.jpg 897w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>That is where the true power of the sideways sales letter comes into play and with this power, we can now safely pivot into the sales pitch.</p>
<p>At this point people have a thorough understanding of private blog networks, how to build them and how to avoid the common pitfalls &#8211; but they don&#8217;t understand the wider strategy which is where the pivot into the sale comes in.</p>
<p>This is how I structured the sales video-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Title:</strong> &#8220;How To Take Full Control Of Your Websites Traffic &#038; Search Engine Rankings&#8221;</li>
<li><strong>Mental Triggers:</strong> Social Proof, Credibility, Scarcity, Proof, Reason/Why</li>
<li><strong>Launch Story Theme:</strong> Reluctant hero, loss &#038; redemption, the underdog and discovery.</li>
<li><strong>The Problem:</strong> How to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together</li>
<li><strong>The Solution:</strong> Buy the full course</li>
</ul>
<p>You should notice one significant change in the structure of this video.</p>
<p>Instead of introducing a new problem like the first 3 videos, this video delivers the full course as the final solution with a call to action to buy.</p>
<p>And people bought like wildfire!</p>
<h2>The Results Speak For Themselves</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">sideways sales letter technique</a> took me from clueless to 6 figure product launch step by step.</p>
<p>Without it, I don&#8217;t know where I would be!</p>
<p>But what I do know is that the product launch formula Jeff teaches WORKS and it not only works, it works VERY VERY WELL.</p>
<p>Whether you have a new product to launch or want to re-launch a product you already made, his product launch formula is a license to print money.</p>
<p>I mean just look at these outrageous numbers-</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales-618x330.jpg" alt="product launch sales" width="618" height="330" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-45972" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales-618x330.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/sales.jpg 896w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>Just to recap, that is <strong>$134,171 in 6 days</strong>!!!! It really is the perfect product launch formula.</p>
<p><strong>So if you only do one thing today, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">make sure you watch these free training videos</a>.</strong></p>
<p>You might just regret it if you don&#8217;t.</p>
<h2>Taking It To The Next Level With A JV Launch</h2>
<p>Once you have had a successful launch the next phase of the product launch formula that Jeff teaches is a JV launch.</p>
<p>In essence you setup an affiliate program and split profits with affiliates 50/50.</p>
<p>That way I will have an army of people all promoting the course to their list in the same moment which will create a huge amount of buzz.</p>
<p>It also allows me to reach new audiences outside of my own subscribers.</p>
<h3>How To Prepare For A JV Launch</h3>
<p>Preparing for a JV launch is easy, all you need-</p>
<ol>
<li>Is a method to track affiliate sales</li>
<li>And a page that explains the JV launch</li>
</ol>
<p>And you can set all of that up in a day!</p>
<h4>Choosing An Affiliate Platform</h4>
<p>You have a huge range of options to consider when choosing an affiliate platform. But for 99% of people you are going to want to use <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/jvzoo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="JVZoo">JVZoo</a>.</p>
<p>Not only is it super easy to setup &#8211; but it&#8217;s literally built from the ground up specifically to handle JV launches with some unique features.</p>
<p>For example you can build simple or complex sales funnel with your own products or other peoples products and the system automatically splits the money between you, the vendor and the affiliate.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/jvzoo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="JVZoo"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_030955_PM-618x405.jpg" alt="jvzoo sales funnel" width="618" height="405" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49383" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_030955_PM-618x405.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_030955_PM-897x588.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_030955_PM.jpg 935w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>Not only that but there is an <strong>existing pool of hundereds of thousands of affiliates</strong> all waiting to promote your product.</p>
<h4>Creating Your JV Page</h4>
<p>Your JV page needs to include all of your launch details, including-</p>
<ol>
<li>Important launch dates</li>
<li>Product details</li>
<li>Pricing/commission details</li>
<li>Sales funnel details</li>
<li>Graphics/emails/resources to make promotion easy</li>
<li>Reasons affiliates should promote</li>
</ol>
<p>You can see <a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank">my JV page for yourself</a> for a live example-</p>
<p><a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM-618x683.jpg" alt="my jv page" width="618" height="683" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49384" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM-618x683.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031211_PM.jpg 862w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></a></p>
<p>I also decided to record a short video that included all of the details of my launch.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s basically a GoPro and an iPad stuck to a stick but it works well-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20933981_1680148345331786_7577346593610751979_o-618x348.jpg" alt="recording setup" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49385" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20933981_1680148345331786_7577346593610751979_o-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20933981_1680148345331786_7577346593610751979_o-897x505.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20933981_1680148345331786_7577346593610751979_o.jpg 1440w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<h3>Recruiting Affiliates</h3>
<p>Once you have all of that in place it&#8217;s time to start recruiting affiliates because without affiliates your JV launch is going to fall flat on it&#8217;s face.</p>
<p>I am going to share all of the places I used to find affiliates, but first you should write a few lists-</p>
<ol>
<li>People you know who might want to promote your product</li>
<li>People who have already bought or used your product</li>
<li>People who promote similar products</li>
<li>Companies you have generated affiliate sales for</li>
</ol>
<p>Once you have finished that you should have quite an extensive list of people to contact.</p>
<p>You can take a look at an example email I sent out below-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031714_PM-618x246.jpg" alt="email example" width="618" height="246" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49386" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031714_PM-618x246.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031714_PM.jpg 792w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget you can also ask your existing email or social media subscribers.</p>
<p>This the email I sent out to them-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_031917_PM.jpg" alt="my email" width="567" height="856" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49387" /></p>
<p>And you would be amazed at the glowing responses of support I have received!</p>
<h4>Other Places To Find Affiliates</h4>
<p>Once you have contacted everyone in &#8220;your world&#8221; you need to reach out to other places to recruit potential affiliates.</p>
<h5>Product Launch Calendars</h5>
<p>First of all you should submit your launch to the various launch calendars-</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://v3.jvnotifypro.com" target="_blank">JVNotifyPro</a></li>
<li><a href="http://muncheye.com/" target="_blank">MunchEye</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.jvplanet.com/" target="_blank">JVPlanet</a></li>
<li><a href="http://jvpromote.com/" target="_blank">JVPromote</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.warriorforum.com/affiliate-program-database/" target="_blank">WarriorForum</a></li>
</ul>
<p>You can also choose to upgrade your listings.</p>
<p>For example I bought the following featured listing uogrades-</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>MunchEye</strong> &#8211; $250 for a 7 day featured upgrade</li>
<li><strong>JVNewsWatch</strong> &#8211; $47 featured listing upgrade</li>
<li><strong>JVPlanet</strong> &#8211; $37 permanent featured listing upgrade</li>
<li><strong>JVPromote</strong> &#8211; $19 permanent featured listing upgrade</li>
</ul>
<p>Some of these services will also mail your offer to their database of affiliates-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_032040_PM.jpg" alt="jv email shot" width="607" height="544" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49388" /></p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t cheap but it&#8217;s really worth it!</p>
<h5>JVZoo Ads</h5>
<p>One of the main benefits of using JVZoo as your affiliate platform is the fact they already have hundreds of thousands of affiliates across every niche you can think of.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/jvzoo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="JVZoo">JVZoo</a> also offer a number of advertising options that will see your affiliate sign up shoot through the roof,</p>
<p>For example this advert gets shown front and center to every single affiliate and seller that logs into JVZoo-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_032243_PM-618x224.jpg" alt="jvzoo ads" width="618" height="224" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49389" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_032243_PM-618x224.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Screenshot_083017_032243_PM.jpg 878w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>It costs $300 per day which may sound expensive, but the return will be huge once those affiliate sales start flowing.</p>
<h2>It&#8217;s JV Launch Time!</h2>
<p>So once you have prepared everything and recruited a small army of affiliates, it&#8217;s time to launch!</p>
<p>And while I would love to be able to share the next part of the story with you-</p>
<p>I can&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Because my JV launch hasn&#8217;t actually happened yet!</p>
<p>Right now I am recruiting affiliates ready to launch on September 22nd.</p>
<p>So <a href="http://marketerseal.com/jv/" target="_blank">sign up as an affiliate now</a> and you&#8217;ll get a front row seat to the inner workings of a JV launch live!</p>
<p>And in the mean time if you want to learn more about how to build and launch a product the right way, <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/sideways-sales-letter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><strong>watch Jeff&#8217;s free video training right now!</strong></a></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/">The Product Launch Formula I Used To Make $134,171 In 6 Days</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/f-BWl-LPX3I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/B5Ut6IPR2lo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/J605Bls3Txc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/wyGWs871LVY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/NFkqEUWKXgY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Z41XA70Ykio" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/wpFOaYpX1lU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/0sc78voPacU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xV7rCz9eaBY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/XDcfYhLRIDU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/BKiBAphlvDI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/TX934J3jiZw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/zHAsO-hJT3I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/nHy4MgxdM9k" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/1x71aTuaDzM" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/q9621dZ8oUg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/pqwQ3FLLaSc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Irj2u4lf3S8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/qqVKMWaeFtg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/535fstbaCAc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LUD3t41NEh0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsCase StudyHow ToMake MoneyWed, 30 Aug 2017 16:00:30 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/6-figure-product-launch-formula/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=45943Matthew Woodward2017-08-30T16:00:30ZAccelerate Your Success With The Best WordPress Theme For Blogginghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/NAtI5vJhVOg/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/feed/49https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/x2yD_c8lPv8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/6B1pychanpU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/BHLIk1qj3QA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/RWSlGg3tfOw/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/s0-LLC3UVzc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/UztaShrwblk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Rro9J1eKTgs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/c0WJgQzPfgk/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xReFWv8QQ0s/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Q4npb5Hx1vY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/NyaFhRbChEg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/UCqmEoYMoxo/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Lfti3FrdnKU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/BnOX7J8VM9c/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/JBwAy7OlTH8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/VnWejU9eFo0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/sKxc4Quk7DQ/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/2A43JExsSeU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/SbGBuRa3ei4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Cb4QczxqYw4/<p>Investing in a WordPress theme is a big decision. This is how your site is going to look and feel to your customers for the next few months or years. It’s going to be a deciding factor in how much traffic you get, how people view your business and how much money you make. If you get it wrong you can find yourself with just another lifeless, moneyless blog tucked away on the 18th page of Google, writing to the same five email subscribers over and over again. But if you get it right you can enter the world of ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/">Accelerate Your Success With The Best WordPress Theme For Blogging</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Investing in a WordPress theme is a big decision.</p>
<p>This is how your site is going to look and feel to your customers for the next few months or years.</p>
<p>It’s going to be a deciding factor in how much traffic you get, how people view your business and how much money you make.</p>
<p>If you get it wrong you can find yourself with just another lifeless, moneyless blog tucked away on the 18th page of Google, writing to the same five email subscribers over and over again.</p>
<p>But if you get it right you can enter the world of high-traffic, high converting and highly successful blogs out there.</p>
<p>In this article I want to advise you on how to choose the best WordPress theme for blogging, and give you the tools you need to get all of these great benefits.</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>Why your WordPress theme is critical to your success</li>
<li>7 critical things to look for when choosing your WordPress theme</li>
<li>How I chose the best WordPress theme for blogging</li>
<li>Where to <strong>download my theme</strong></li>
<li>3 hacks to help you optimise your new design</li>
</ul>
<p>Meaning you’ll come away armed with the knowledge you’re choosing the best WordPress theme, for the right job and at the right price.</p>
<p>Ready? Let’s get started&#8230;</p>
<h2>Why The Design Of Your Blog Is Critical To Your Success</h2>
<p>The design of your blog plays a <strong>huge</strong> role in the success of your site.</p>
<p>On the surface it may <em>feel</em> like it’s just a design. But there’s a reason you &#8211; and countless other bloggers &#8211; spend hours scrolling through pages of themes looking for the right one.</p>
<p>Because you know the design of your site speaks <strong>volumes</strong> about the type of business you run.</p>
<p>In this section let’s look at why the design of your site is important and how it affects your bottom line.</p>
<h3>It’s The Body Language Of Your Site</h3>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/visual-marketing-pictures-worth-60000-words-01126256">Visual information is processed 60,000 times faster than words.</a> Meaning that when someone comes to your site the design <em>says</em> an awful lot before they’ve gotten into the content.</p>
<p>Now, as you’ll read in point #3, this isn’t about how pretty your site is. Instead it’s about sending the right message to your new readers, and how you want them to feel:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do you want them to picture you as an authority?</li>
<li>Do you want them to feel a particular emotion?</li>
<li>Do you want them to feel a certain way about your product?</li>
</ul>
<p>For example the <em>Zen Habits</em> blog talks about mindfulness, removing excess and creating new habits. It’s about having a clear message through the day to day clutter. </p>
<p>And you can feel that on your first glance:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49327" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemezenhabits1-897x481.png" alt="Zenhabit WordPress theme" width="897" height="481" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemezenhabits1-897x481.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemezenhabits1-618x331.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemezenhabits1.png 1449w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Because the blog is so stripped back the design matches the message. Can you imagine if this site was cluttered with pop ups, lots of hard to navigate menus and distractions?</p>
<p>On the flip side <em>Amazon</em> focus on being the <em>everything</em> store and giving you access to buy as much as you want. So the cluttered and full-on nature of their page matches the message too:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49328" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeamazonecho1-897x475.png" alt="Amazon Design" width="897" height="475" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeamazonecho1-897x475.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeamazonecho1-618x327.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeamazonecho1-301x158.png 301w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>So it’s important to have a design that matches what <em>you’re</em> trying to say and the point you want to make. Don’t preach productivity and have a slow to load site that’s hard to navigate.</p>
<h3>Your Design Builds Trust</h3>
<p>Have you ever been on a website that you’re just not sure you can trust?</p>
<p>Perhaps you thought they might take your money and never send you a product. Or that downloading would fill you computer with viruses.</p>
<p>Well, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.business2community.com/web-design/psychology-web-design-01651563">as Business2Community write here</a>, a lot of that comes down to the design of your site. </p>
<p>And choosing the right WordPress theme can be the difference maker between being a site your users will trust, or one they’re going to avoid.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use Is The Bottom Line In Everything</h3>
<p>You probably think the prettier your site is, the better it will convert. But there are thousands of <em>ugly</em> sites out there that are converting highly right now.</p>
<p>For example take look at <a target="_blank" href="http://irisharoundoz.com/">Irish Around Oz</a>, an expat travel site for Irish people in Australia. </p>
<p>It’s probably the <em>least</em> beautiful site in the world. <a target="_blank" href="https://gaps.com/expat-travel/">But according to Glen over at Gaps</a>, it’s making in excess of $10,000 every month.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49329" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeirish1-897x671.png" alt="simple theme for blogs" width="897" height="671" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeirish1-897x671.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeirish1-618x462.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You could also check out <a target="_blank" href="https://www.skyscanner.com/">Skyscanner</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://untemplater.com/">Untemplater</a> and <a target="_blank" href="http://www.aluxurytravelblog.com/">A Luxury Travel Blog</a> to see similar trends.</p>
<p>Having a pretty site can also mean that you convert. For example the <a target="_blank" href="https://mailchimp.com/">MailChimp</a> website is gorgeous to look at and they have millions of customers to date:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49330" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthememailchimp1-897x410.png" alt="mailchimp blog theme" width="897" height="410" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthememailchimp1-897x410.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthememailchimp1-618x283.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>The same goes for <a target="_blank" href="http://neilpatel.com/">Neil Patel</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.drip.co/">Drip</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/">Gary Vaynerchuk</a>. Their sites are all really beautiful to look at, and convert highly.</p>
<p><strong>So it’s not really a question of how pretty or ugly your site is.</strong></p>
<p>Instead it’s a question of how easy to use your site is. Is your audience easily able to find what they’re looking for, read your content and access the points where you want them to convert?</p>
<p>If your site is hard to navigate, slow to load and filled with distractions then you’re going to take a real hit on conversions. Regardless of whether you spent $10 or $10,000 on designing your site.</p>
<p>Which brings me to swiftly to my next point…</p>
<h3>Even Simple Changes Affect Your Conversions</h3>
<p>There are <em>hundreds</em> of case studies out there to back this up.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://blog.kissmetrics.com/100-conversion-optimization-case-studies/">Just a quick look through this Kissmetrics Article</a> shows <strong>over 40</strong> instances where design changes have improved conversions ranging from 30% all the way to 400%.</p>
<p>This can be as simple as changing the colour of a button, or redesigning your site. But design is integral to them all.</p>
<p>If you get it wrong, your site will start to lose out on cash.</p>
<p>So that covers <em>why</em> design really is that important to your site. </p>
<p>Now let’s look at what should you be looking for in a WordPress theme&#8230;</p>
<h2>7 Things To Look For When Choosing A WordPress Theme</h2>
<p>Here are a few of my recommendations for what you should be looking for in a WordPress theme. </p>
<p>These are core values that, if not there, show you’re going to be wasting money on your purchase.</p>
<p>Be sure to read these carefully and understand each one before going out to make a purchase.</p>
<h3>#1 &#8211; Simple And Clutter Free</h3>
<p>The simpler and easier to read your site is, the better.</p>
<p>This allows your content to shine through and you can use your powers of copywriting to make the difference in your sales. Meaning silly little design bugs don’t hold you back.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/whitespace-web-design#sm.00007nwcm3ikyeqdqox28afyl4h69">As HubSpot write here</a>, whitespace is one the most integral parts of website design. </p>
<p>It’s basically all of the unused space that surrounds the content on your site, like in the image below:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49331" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemehubspot1-897x490.png" alt="hubspot wordpress theme example" width="897" height="490" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemehubspot1-897x490.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemehubspot1-618x338.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Because white doesn’t draw the eye in this case, it focuses the attention on the words on the page. </p>
<p>Much like reading words on paper; you don’t notice the paper, just the words you’re reading.</p>
<p>So a theme that allows you to have lots of whitespace around the words you’re writing, the menus you’re using and the images you’re sharing is essential.</p>
<h3>#2 &#8211; Mobile Responsiveness</h3>
<p>Mobile responsiveness is non-negotiable right now. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/01/mobile-web-usage-overtakes-desktop-for-first-time/">Mobile usage has overtaken desktop usage</a> and it doesn’t look like slowing down.</p>
<p>But let&#8217;s not forget Google told us explicitly way back in 2015 that if we want our site to rank well it <a target="_blank" href="https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6196932?hl=en">must be mobile friendly</a>.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/mobile-responsiveness.jpg" alt="the best wordpress themes are mobile responsive" width="280" height="263" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49352" /></p>
<p>That is a <strong>key ranking factor</strong> and who doesn&#8217;t way lots of free targeted high converting traffic from Google?</p>
<p>So avoid buying a theme that <em>doesn’t</em> appear natural on mobile phones as it will seriously cripple your ability to grow. </p>
<h3>#3 &#8211; Optimized For Speed</h3>
<p>Site speed has a direct impact on your customer experience, <a target="_blank" href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/page-speed">SEO rankings</a> and how well your site converts.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you have the most beautiful site in the world. If it takes 60 seconds to load and 10 seconds to jump between pages, you’re going to lose out.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slowsite.png" alt="how to increase website speed and conversion rates" width="560" height="293" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-2296" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slowsite.png 560w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/slowsite-300x156.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px" /></p>
<p>Not long ago <a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/site-speed-is-money-how-i-earnt-30587-in-6-hours/">I was able to increase my site earnings by $30,586</a> just by making some tweaks to the site speed. It goes to show that even a few seconds goes a long way.</p>
<h3>#4 &#8211; SEO Ready</h3>
<p>SEO is a <em>big</em> source of traffic for blogs. And whether you plan on focusing on it or not, it pays to be SEO ready.</p>
<p>These themes are made in a way that makes them: easy to crawl, simple to use SEO plugins with and do as little as possible to stand between you and high levels of search engine traffic.</p>
<p>Make sure your theme is clearly labelled as SEO ready or SEO optimised and do some basic spot checks like making sure there is only 1 H1 tag on posts/pages.</p>
<h3>#5 &#8211; Easy To Customise</h3>
<p>You want a theme, not a prison.</p>
<p>So the site design you choose should be easy to customise so that you can set yourself apart from the other sites in your niche. And you should be able to do it with a few clicks of a button.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot_082317_070310_PM-618x172.jpg" alt="the best themes are easy to customise" width="618" height="172" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49353" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot_082317_070310_PM-618x172.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot_082317_070310_PM-897x250.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screenshot_082317_070310_PM.jpg 986w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>You don’t want a theme where you need to dive into the code and start playing around with assets that <em>could</em> backfire and break your site.</p>
<h3>#6 &#8211; Built In Shortcodes</h3>
<p>Shortcodes allow for an extra level of customisation to your blog posts.</p>
<p>They’re simple copy and paste codes that allow you to make some really cool features of your theme come to life:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49332" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeshortcodes1-897x494.png" alt="shortcodes are an essential feature of the best wordpress theme for blogs" width="897" height="494" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeshortcodes1-897x494.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeshortcodes1-618x340.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>I use embeded videos, quote boxes, highlighted texts and sharing buttons where they’re needed. </p>
<p>This can really help your content stand out on the page and look super professional.</p>
<h3>#7 &#8211; Good Support</h3>
<p>The final point is good support.</p>
<p>The <strong>last</strong> problem you want to have is spending $100 on a theme and it break with no support to be found. Trust me, it happened to me in the early days and I never want you to live through that.</p>
<p>Make sure the theme you’re looking at offers a support package for at least six months, and is renewable when it’s needed after that.</p>
<p>Think of this as your theme’s insurance policy.</p>
<h2>How I Chose The Best WordPress Theme For Blogging</h2>
<p>I’ll be honest with you:</p>
<p>When I first bought my theme it was a horribly coded mess that I hacked to death. </p>
<p>It was a stock theme that I just threw up there to make do. And it quickly became outdated and I found myself in a world of problems.</p>
<p>So I decided enough was enough and I reached out to the team at <em>MyThemeShop</em> to help me turn my hacked to death theme into something I could actually use to grow my business.</p>
<p>I needed a theme that would help me build my brand, optimise my SEO and that I could perform multiple tests with. And I needed it all without compromising speed, usability or readability.</p>
<p>I wanted the best WordPress theme for blogging period.</p>
<p>And that’s how the theme that you’re seeing on the blog right now was born.</p>
<p>Working alongside the guys from MyThemeShop, I was able to create the best WordPress theme for blogs that is-</p>
<ul>
<li>Quick</li>
<li>SEO Ready</li>
<li>Easy to brand</li>
<li>Advertising friendly</li>
<li>eCommerce ready</li>
<li>User focused</li>
</ul>
<p>But on top of that, this theme was integral to positioning me as an authority in the SEO and Affiliate Marketing niches. </p>
<p>The design of the blog <em>instantly</em> makes you, the reader, feel like you’re on a blog of someone who knows what he’s talking about.</p>
<p>Whether it’s the subtle branding at the top of the page:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49333" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom2-897x160.png" alt="my wordpress themes header" width="897" height="160" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom2-897x160.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom2-618x110.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom2.png 1513w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Or the sidebar:</p>
<p>Where the author box that draws the eye-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/sidebar-widget.jpg" alt="author box sidebar widget" width="270" height="356" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49359" /></p>
<p>Or the clarity of the words on the page (more on why that’s important later). All of it positions me as someone in the know before you even think about how many subscribers my blog may (or may not) have.</p>
<p>The fact you’ve stayed with this blog post this long is testament to that.</p>
<p>And thanks to the wonderful team over at MyThemeShop you’re now able to access this <strong>exact</strong> theme and use it for your own site, too.</p>
<p>The theme, titled Authority, has been even further improved to make it flexible to any brand or niche.</p>
<p>In fact you can see <em>everything</em> you can do with the theme right here:</p>
<div style="padding-bottom:20px" align="center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rCff2synhUg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p>So if you want a theme for your site that builds trust, loads quickly, ranks well and positions <em>you</em> as the authority in your niche, then you <em>need</em> this theme.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mytheme/" rel="nofollow" title="You can see a live demo &#038; download your copy here"><strong>You can see a live demo &#038; download your copy here</strong></a>.</p>
<h2>3 Blog Design Hacks To Improve Your Site</h2>
<p>Once you’ve got your theme in place it’s time to refine it and turn it into a well read, high converting, blogging machine.</p>
<p>In this section I’m going to talk you through 3 hacks and adjustments you can make to increase on page time, customer conversions and sign ups.</p>
<p>So if you’re ready to supercharge your blog, read on&#8230;</p>
<h3>01: Remove Your Sidebars For Longer On Page Time</h3>
<p>This is a place where bloggers &#8211; myself included in the past &#8211; love to put adverts, sign up options and links to other content. </p>
<p>After all it’s dead space that could be used for making money, right?</p>
<p>Well it turns out your sidebars could really be holding you back, especially on your article pages.</p>
<p>For example, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/income-report/monthly-income-growth-traffic-report-september-2016/">I found that by just removing the side bars from my content</a>, I was able to instantly increase my session duration and on page time by 25%. Not bad for just a few clicks work:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49335" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesidebar1-897x186.png" alt="remove your sidebars" width="897" height="186" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesidebar1-897x186.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesidebar1-618x128.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesidebar1.png 1004w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>This can also have a direct impact on your conversion rates and overall profits, too.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://blog.crazyegg.com/2015/03/30/remove-sidebar-increase-profits/">In this blog post from Crazy Egg</a>, they found that Video Fruit managed to increase their email sign ups by 26% and Impact Branding and Design generated 71% more leads.</p>
<p>Why does this happen? Well, it has a lot to do with Jam.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://hbr.org/2006/06/more-isnt-always-better">In an experiment Psychologists ran two tests in a supermarket</a>. The first group was shown 24 different types of gourmet jam and gave everyone who tried a sample a $1 coupon for them to purchase their favourite.</p>
<p>The next group was shown just six different types of jam and given the exact same $1 coupon.</p>
<p>The first display with lots of jams generated a lot of interest. </p>
<p>But when it came down to people buying an actual product the people who saw 24 jams were <strong>one tenth less likely to buy</strong> than the people who only saw six types of jam.</p>
<p>By giving people too many options you create choice paralysis. </p>
<p>They can’t decide <em>which</em> option is better so they take no action instead. Unless the value proposition is so good that they can’t refuse.</p>
<p>And when you look at the design of a blog, the same applies. There are often options to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Opt-in to a mailing list</li>
<li>Click on your most important posts</li>
<li>Click on your recent posts</li>
<li>Click on an advert</li>
<li>Like you on Facebook</li>
<li>Check out your latest tweets</li>
<li>Download a free eBook</li>
<li>Redeem a members only discount</li>
</ul>
<p>Meaning their being hit over and over and over again with options before they get to the call to action in your blog post or on your sales page.</p>
<p>So when it comes time to decide what to do &#8211; be that opt in to your mailing list or buy a product &#8211; they’ve got no idea what to do. Resulting in a reaction like this:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49336" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemestewart1.gif" alt="waaaahhh" width="347" height="404" /></p>
<p>But by removing those side bars and all of the other distractions you allow people to focus on your overall call to action.</p>
<h3>02: Adjust Your Fonts For Better Conversions</h3>
<p>When all of the distractions on your blog have gone that only leaves two things for the reader to contend with. Your content and your fonts.</p>
<p>A font is the body language of your text. If your blog uses <em>Times New Roman</em> chances are you’ll read a lot more formal. And if you use <em>Comic Sans</em> chances are people will think you’re a four year old.</p>
<p>But a font can also affect how much of your page someone reads. </p>
<p>If a font is too small, it’ll be too much work to read and people will switch off. </p>
<p>If a font is too artistic or hard to make out, people will also switch off.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/John.Romaniello/posts/1216247708445613">Bigger fonts often lead to higher conversions and longer time on page</a>. So when it comes to choosing your theme it’s important to make sure you’re able to adjust your fonts as and when you need to.</p>
<p>And if you want optimal results it pays to pay attention to this next piece of information.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://conversionxl.com/the-effects-of-typography-on-user-experience-conversions/">To quote this brilliant article from ConversionXL</a>, there’s a lot of research to back up these next three points:</p>
<ol>
<li>Small font sizes &#38; low-contrast are the #1 complaint for web users as it relates to reading online.</li>
<li>Due to the effects of aging, at 40, only half the light gets through to your retina as it did at age 20. When you’re 60, it’s only about 20%. (See: Presbyopia) also 3/4 of Americans use corrective lenses</li>
<li>All readers – but especially low-vision readers – experienced better reading speeds &#38; comprehension when line-spacing was set to 1.5</li>
</ol>
<p>All of which points to using bigger, easier to read fonts with lots of white space around them. Making your page easier to read and digest.</p>
<p>If you look at lots of high converting blogs &#8211; even the ‘ugly’ ones &#8211; you’ll see that this practice is often used.</p>
<p>Just like this excerpt from the Jeff Goins blog:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49337" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeplatform1-897x508.png" alt="the best wordpress themes for blogs are often ugly" width="897" height="508" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeplatform1-897x508.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeplatform1-618x350.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemeplatform1.png 1445w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Or this one from Seth Godin’s blog:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49338" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemepost1-897x529.png" alt="Seth Godin design example" width="897" height="529" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemepost1-897x529.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemepost1-618x364.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemepost1.png 1221w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>This was one of the important points in creating my theme, which is why there is so much white space and clarity with my fonts. There’s nothing to distract you from reading the words.</p>
<p>Now you don’t need to go over the top and turn this into big fonts like you’d find in a children’s book. But there are some best practices I’d recommend:</p>
<ul>
<li>Make sure your font is between 11pt and 14pt</li>
<li>Make sure your font size is consistent between mobile and desktop</li>
<li>If you’re not sure on a font, choose Arial or Georgia</li>
</ul>
<p>And, in the long run, it would be a good idea to split test which fonts work best for your audience too.</p>
<h3>03: Focus Above The Fold To Capture Attention</h3>
<p>I hate to break it to you but there is <em>no</em> perfect design. Or, we’d all be using it and I’d have reached a seven figure income much sooner.</p>
<p>But <a target="_blank" href="https://sumo.com/stories/best-blog-templates">in Sumo’s research they</a> found that while no <em>one</em> particular factor makes a blog design perfect; when you focus on your scroll rate the results drastically improve.</p>
<p>Your scroll rate is how many click onto your site and continue to scroll down the page.</p>
<p>While this might sound arbitrary it actually quite important. This scroll rate controls how much of your content new visitors see. </p>
<p>Especially if they’re landing on your home page from guest posts, adverts and other links pointing to your site.</p>
<p>So it’s the difference between someone seeing just your first post and <strong>all</strong> the content that could grab them.</p>
<p>To distill their research a little they found that everything sits above or below the fold. What does that mean?</p>
<ul>
<li>Above the fold is everything your readers see when they land on your page without scrolling</li>
<li>Below the fold is everything they see when you readers do scroll</li>
</ul>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.clearvoice.com/i-spent-30000-testing-different-blog-designs-heres-what-i-found/">As Justin Brooke over at ClearVoice found when he spent $30,000 on testing his site</a>, putting important elements above the fold makes a <strong>huge</strong> impact on how much time people spend on your blog.</p>
<p>By putting the most important information in this real estate you’re able to focus attention on where you want it to go. </p>
<p>For example when you land on my homepage you will see this-</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/thrive-welcome-618x348.jpg" alt="The best wordpress theme for blogging makes good use of the fold" width="618" height="348" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-49358" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/thrive-welcome-618x348.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/thrive-welcome-897x505.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/thrive-welcome.jpg 960w" sizes="(max-width: 618px) 100vw, 618px" /></p>
<p>That is powered by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/thriveleads/" rel="nofollow" title="Thrive Leads">Thrive Leads</a> and currently converts at 5%.</p>
<p>But I actually have a second &#8220;above the fold&#8221; for the 95% of people that close the welcome.</p>
<p>Normally WordPress lists the latest posts first but if you click through to my blog the first post you see isn’t my latest one.</p>
<p>Instead it’s the most important post I want people to see at the moment:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49340" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom3-897x534.png" alt="Readers see this post first" width="897" height="534" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom3-897x534.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecustom3-618x368.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Because this above the fold area has purpose &#8211; it shows I’m an award winning blogger and funnels people to my highest performing post &#8211; people inherently know that there is more than one post on the site.</p>
<p>So they begin to scroll down when that’s not the post they’re looking for.</p>
<p>For most blogs the above the fold area is going to be the most important. This is somewhere people are <strong>guaranteed</strong> to see. </p>
<p>So, coming back to the research from the guys at Sumo, it’s important to have a purpose here.</p>
<p>For example <a target="_blank" href="https://smartblogger.com/">SmartBlogger</a> have the purpose here of displaying their sign up offer:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49341" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesmartblogger1-897x453.png" alt="SmartBlogger" width="897" height="453" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesmartblogger1-897x453.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemesmartblogger1-618x312.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>While <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canva.com/">Canva</a> uses the above the fold of their site to focus on <em>one</em> particular post and tease at new posts below:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49342" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecanva1-897x594.png" alt="Canva blog example" width="897" height="594" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecanva1-897x594.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/wpthemecanva1-618x409.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>When you’re designing your theme &#8211; be it the authority theme, or another you’ve bought &#8211; be sure to have a real actionable purpose for the above the fold area of your site.</p>
<p>This could be something like:</p>
<ul>
<li>An email sign up box</li>
<li>An free download offer</li>
<li>Your most important/featured content</li>
<li>Your latest blog post</li>
<li>A brand led video</li>
</ul>
<p>Where you want to drive traffic, sign ups and prompt people to scroll further down the page if they need to.</p>
<h2>Wrapping It Up</h2>
<p>I hope by now you’ve got a much better idea of what to look for in a WordPress theme and how it affects your bottom line.</p>
<p>Everything that you’ve read so far has been at the <strong>heart</strong> of designing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mytheme/" rel="nofollow" title="my own Authority theme">my own Authority theme</a>.</p>
<p>And I honestly feel that if you want to build a blog like mine that has generated <strong>over seven figures</strong> in income so far, which easily makes it the best WordPress theme for blogging.</p>
<p>If you want a proven, fast, SEO ready, customisable theme that gives you <strong>complete control</strong> over the future of your site, then Authority is also the theme for you too.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/mytheme/" rel="nofollow" title="Download your copy of my theme now"><strong>Download your copy of my theme now</strong></a> and get a head start on the competition.</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/">Accelerate Your Success With The Best WordPress Theme For Blogging</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/x2yD_c8lPv8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/6B1pychanpU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/BHLIk1qj3QA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/RWSlGg3tfOw" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/s0-LLC3UVzc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/UztaShrwblk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Rro9J1eKTgs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/c0WJgQzPfgk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xReFWv8QQ0s" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Q4npb5Hx1vY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/NyaFhRbChEg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/UCqmEoYMoxo" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Lfti3FrdnKU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/BnOX7J8VM9c" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/JBwAy7OlTH8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/VnWejU9eFo0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/sKxc4Quk7DQ" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/2A43JExsSeU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/SbGBuRa3ei4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Cb4QczxqYw4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/NAtI5vJhVOg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsBloggingThu, 24 Aug 2017 12:55:21 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/best-wordpress-themes-for-blogs/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=41687Matthew Woodward2017-08-24T12:55:21ZHow To Choose The Best Email Marketing Software For Youhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/TNyp8acmo84/
https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/feed/86https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/UicUwsr2yf8/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LwJxRCsZnSg/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/sgrt_d0OCqc/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/28BvtG9SWa4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/pbfikhlCt2w/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/xgHUI7zLtCA/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/86kDX3fnouI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/L2__8uEaIiE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/CPCrit54Mk4/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/6AwVjy55I80/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/1RcawZGeiTY/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/ixT0FYpeNKE/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/oY_qXCCdHME/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/nGs4szP149I/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/Jruo-wwmHhs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/CmP1NhlNHYs/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/JIWhm8tQ5YU/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/rjBkaWAwYMI/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/LZgXbtKjle0/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~3/se7o8NdAIsk/<p>Can I share with you two of the biggest lies in marketing? Email marketing is dead Your email marketing software doesn’t matter Firstly, email marketing isn’t dead. No matter what that dude said on Reddit. It’s thriving, and it’s integral to making money online. Secondly, your software – the platform you use to email from – really does matter. The ‘just pick one and run with’ thinking of the past doesn’t work anymore. You need to find a client that works for you. One that does the things that you need. That gives you comfort and control over your list. ...</p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/">How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Software For You</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p><p>Can I share with you two of the biggest lies in marketing?</p>
<ol>
<li>Email marketing is dead</li>
<li>Your email marketing software doesn’t matter</li>
</ol>
<p>Firstly, email marketing isn’t dead. No matter what that dude said on Reddit. It’s thriving, and it’s integral to making money online.</p>
<p>Secondly, your software – the platform you use to email from – really does matter.</p>
<p>The ‘just pick one and run with’ thinking of the past doesn’t work anymore. You need to find a client that works for you. One that does the things that you need. That gives you comfort and control over your list.</p>
<p>Because if you don’t have that, you’re setting yourself up to fail. And you’ll be wasting time and effort emailing people in a way that you shouldn’t be.</p>
<p>Now, who that client is for you is completely, well…down to you. But it helps to know what makes a client good, or bad, before you take the plunge and invest.</p>
<p>That’s what this article aims to give you….</p>
<h2>What You Will Learn</h2>
<ul>
<li>Why email marketing is so important</li>
<li>How to choose the best email marketing software for you</li>
<li>The key features &#38; benefits of each if the email marketing options</li>
<li>Who uses each email marketing platform &#38; why</li>
</ul>
<h2>Why Is Email Marketing So Important?</h2>
<p>As I mentioned before, there have been whispers in the Internet Marketing community that email marketing is dead. </p>
<p>I don’t know where they started, and I don’t know when they’ll end, but I do know this:</p>
<p>They’re lies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank">Email marketing</a> is as alive and well as ever. In fact, it’s still essential to making money online. </p>
<p>Because it gives you a lot of benefits you can’t get with any other form of marketing in the same way. It allows you to:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Have Unlimited Access: </b>You can get in touch with your customers at any time of day, from anywhere in the world, in just a few clicks. And, best of all, they’ve given you the permission to do it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>Build Relationships: </b>Whether you’re a solo blogger, or a big-time business, you can humanise yourself by sending personalised, valuable emails to your audience. Even from an autoresponder platform.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><b>More Traffic: </b>Having an email list means more people know about, and come to, your site. Because when you email them to let them know, they’ll come flocking in big numbers. Take a look at this traffic graph <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-part-1/" target="_blank">Matt posted about his own mailing list</a>, every red arrow is when he sent an email to his list:</li>
</ul>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49121" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/traffic-screenshot.png" alt="matt email traffic screenshot" width="593" height="214" /></p>
<ul>
<li><b>Everlasting Love</b>: No matter what happens – your site gets penalised, your wife runs off with the milkman, your husband decides to move to The Philippines to ‘find himself’, or you decide to pack in Social Media Marketing altogether – you’ll always have your mailing list to fall back on. If it’s managed well, it can serve you well for the lifespan of your business.</li>
</ul>
<p>If your blog (or site, or forum) is where you connect with people, your email list is where you convert them to customers. </p>
<p>And if you’re always offering great value, relevant content and building relationships with them, they’ll always be there to buy from you in their numbers.</p>
<p>If you don’t have a list, you’re almost throwing money away.</p>
<p>Okay, that’s why it’s so important. Let’s take a look at the lists, then.</p>
<h2>Email Marketing Software Comparison</h2>
<p>There are a lot of different email marketing software platforms out there. </p>
<p>So, for the sake of my sanity and your time, I’ve only compared the best in my email marketing software comparison:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#drip">Drip</a> (powers this blog)</li>
<li><a href="#convertkit">Convertkit</a> (highly recommended)</li>
<li><a href="#aweber">AWeber</a> (highly recommended)</li>
<li><a href="#infusionsoft">Infusionsoft</a></li>
<li><a href="#activecampaign">ActiveCampaign</a></li>
<li><a href="#getresponse">GetResponse</a></li>
<li><a href="#mailchimp">MailChimp</a></li>
<li><a href="#constantcontact">Constant Contact</a></li>
</ol>
<p>They’re popular. They’re at the forefront of the industry. And, there aren’t going to be any nasty surprises lurking inside for you.</p>
<h2>Understanding The Research…</h2>
<p>What makes perfect software for me, isn’t what makes a perfect one for you. </p>
<p>Because, well, thoughts like this are really subjective. Kind of like asking if you prefer a certain beer or food or type of person.</p>
<p>I’ve done everything so I limit that subjectivity from this. And while there will always be some of it (I’m a blogger, that’s life) that’s opinion, I want to keep it minimal.</p>
<p>I’ve based this on a few factors:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Price: </b>Because who wants to spend $200 on something they can get for $20?</li>
<li><b>Ease Of Use: </b>Is it more hassle than it’s worth?</li>
<li><b>Reviews: </b>Positive and negative feedback and comments from users, either on the websites themselves, review sites or their respective Facebook pages</li>
<li><b>Comparison: </b>How do they compare to each other for interface, efficiency, ease of use and so on</li>
</ul>
<p>While it might not be as scientific as a university study, it’s a better than me saying, “Yeah, this one’s good” or “No, that one’s bad”.</p>
<p>I’d also like to make the disclaimer that I am not an affiliate to any of these products. I leave that stuff to the pro’s, like Matt. So nothing is driven by my desire to make money. Winner.</p>
<p>Okay, now you’ve got all of that is out of the way, let’s get stuck into the meat of it…</p>
<p><a name="drip"></a></p>
<h2>Drip: The Newcomer (And The Future?)</h2>
<p>Matt recently moved the entire email marketing portion of his business over to <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip">Drip</a>.</p>
<p>But that may seem an odd move for what is a relatively new tool on the scene.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49151" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/drip-example-897x414.jpg" alt="drip" width="897" height="414" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/drip-example-897x414.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/drip-example-618x286.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>The truth is that Drip is one of the most advanced email marketing tools available on the market right now, and some of their tools could really shape the future of how we grow a business via email.</p>
<p>Let’s take a look at what makes it so different&#8230;</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>I’ll be straight up with you:</p>
<p>Drip is not a cheap option. It’s not Infusionsoft expensive, but it’s relatively expensive in comparison to some of its similar competitors like Aweber and GetResponse.</p>
<p>You can start off on a free trial up to 100 subscribers to get a feel for the tool, which otherwise comes with all of the premium features except removing the branding.</p>
<p>But afterwards the prices begin at $41 per month for up to 2,500 subscribers:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49136" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-16-897x390.jpg" alt="drip pricing" width="897" height="390" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-16-897x390.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-16-618x268.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>However you get a serious amount of benefits for your money, as you’ll see in the next few sections.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>One of <i>the </i>selling points for Drip is how surprisingly easy it is to use.</p>
<p>When you hear a lot about the features &#8211; creating workflows, adding in code for specific events &#8211; it can all sound a little overwhelming. </p>
<p>Especially if you’re like me and have <i>zero </i>experience coding outside of basic html.</p>
<p>However this was designed by people who know how to code, for people who have no idea what to do. Thus making it really accessible.</p>
<p>For example the Visual Workflows allow you to drag, drop and create processes as you’d imagine them on a whiteboard, and not have to <i>guess </i>what’s happening at each specific step:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49135" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/visual-workflows-897x465.jpg" alt="visual workflows" width="897" height="465" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/visual-workflows-897x465.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/visual-workflows-618x320.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>They have <a href="https://www.drip.co/workflows" target="_blank">an entire section on their site</a> dedicated to this feature alone, which shows how confident they are in it’s ease of use.</p>
<p>But this ease of use doesn’t end at the automation workflows either. Every part of what <i>should </i>be a complicated process is explained in layman&#8217;s terms for you to understand.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>So let&#8217;s take a look at some of the key features of Drip and why it is now used to power this very blog.</p>
<h4>Visual Workflows</h4>
<p>You’ve been introduced to these in the last subsection, but they really are one <i>the </i>most important features of <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip">Drip</a>.</p>
<p>Never before have you been able to craft a campaign with such precision, so easily, with a simple interface.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49175" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/95418045.jpeg" alt="workflows two" width="800" height="689" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/95418045.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/95418045-618x532.jpeg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px" /></a></p>
<p>Although you need to know what processes you’d like to set up &#8211; actions you’d like them to take &#8211; once they’re in place it’s <i>literally </i>a drag and drop system.</p>
<h4>Events Not Lists</h4>
<p>Many of the softwares on this list use <i>lists </i>to segment your mailing list. That is, they sign up to a specific section of your mailing list and they’re kept on that list.</p>
<p>For example, if you had a language learning site, you might segment them into:</p>
<ul>
<li>Learn Spanish</li>
<li>Learn French</li>
<li>Learn German</li>
<li>Learn Portuguese</li>
</ul>
<p>And they would all receive content based on that list that they’re on. However, Drip have managed to take a different direction.</p>
<p>Using their unique Javascript programming, the interactions on your email, or the site they click to <i>after </i>the email, allow you to send an email in response to that action (event) that they took.</p>
<p>So if someone reads a certain percentage of your email, clicks a specific link, buys a specific product, abandons their cart, updates their contact info or any other from a limitless combination of actions, you can send the <b>perfect </b>reply.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49176" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/51331116-897x944.jpeg" alt="events drip" width="897" height="944" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/51331116-897x944.jpeg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/51331116-618x650.jpeg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/51331116.jpeg 1094w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>In the screenshot above Drip is automatically sending an exclusive SEMRush free trial to anyone that reads my SEMRush review. </p>
<p>If after 3 days they haven&#8217;t opened that email, it sends a slightly different email. I have a few campaigns like this setup.</p>
<p>This means that you can completely automate your entire process and lead people on a journey that <i>you </i>want them to take.</p>
<p>While Aweber’s email campaigns changed the game, Drip have come along and proved themselves to be MVP.</p>
<h4>Automatically Resend Emails</h4>
<p>When your first send out an email a huge portion of your list won’t open it. That’s just life.</p>
<p>But to get around that you always re-send the email with a different subject line to people that didn’t open it the first time, and get more eyes on your emails and content.</p>
<p>To do this in Aweber is an entirely manual process that takes five to ten minutes to do and you have to remember to do it on the right day at the right time.</p>
<p>But in Drip you just have to tick a box:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49178" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/28127197.png" alt="drip tick box" width="618" height="361" /></p>
<p>This feature alone is worth the purchase price in many cases!</p>
<h4>Lead Scoring</h4>
<p>If you read the Mailchimp section of this article you’d have seen member scoring. But Drip have, again, taken this to a new level.</p>
<p>Their lead scoring is based on how active these members are in your community, or how they interact with your emails, and rank them in order of how likely they are to become a customer.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49180" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/47476087-897x333.png" alt="lead rating" width="897" height="333" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/47476087-897x333.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/47476087-618x229.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You can then use this information to find out more details about them, or create a list of <i>likely </i>customers that you can interact with and sent campaigns too.</p>
<p>This makes your mailing list a whole lot more profitable because you can see <i>who </i>the members are that you need to spend time working on.</p>
<h3>Drawbacks…</h3>
<p>You get a lot of bang for your buck here and it’s been really hard to come up with drawbacks.</p>
<p>In comparison to Aweber that offers a lot of the <i>basic </i>models of what this software does, you’re looking at paying $20+ more per month. </p>
<p>However you do get <b>so much </b>data and insight back that it will pay for itself in the long run.</p>
<p>But it is a much larger investment to make.</p>
<p>The visual workflows, although incredible and easy to use, can be a little overwhelming if you just want a plug and play email list to keep in contact with your customers.</p>
<p>This isn’t designed for a mom and pop blogger who just wants a casual mailing list. You’re only going to be able to invest here, and get the benefit, if you’re serious about marketing and online business.</p>
<p>They also offer a <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip"><strong>100% free fully featured account</strong></a> for your first 100 subscribers.</p>
<p><a name="convertkit"></a></p>
<h2>ConvertKit: The Blogger’s Choice?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/convertkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="ConvertKit">ConvertKit</a> market themselves at professional bloggers (or people who would like to be that), and say that they offer the power of Infusionsoft with the simplicity of MailChimp.</p>
<p>They have a real small-team, homely feel about them. It’s professional and polished but feels as though you could directly contact the CEO without a second thought.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/convertkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="ConvertKit"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49130" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-home-897x523.jpg" alt="convert kit home" width="897" height="523" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-home-897x523.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-home-618x361.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>And there’s a few big names in blogging such as Leo Babauta and Joel Runyon who use the tool too. But should you be the next blogger on their list? Well, let’s find out&#8230;</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>ConvertKit’s pricing is competitive with Aweber and GetResponse, although their divisions in packages fall slightly differently:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49129" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-pricing-897x419.jpg" alt="convert kit pricing" width="897" height="419" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-pricing-897x419.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convert-kit-pricing-618x289.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>All of these packages come with unlimited <i>everything</i>&#8211; email sends, landing pages, email courses plus and others &#8211; and you only pay extra for growing in subscribers.</p>
<p>Unfortunately there’s no free trial available, but you can request a free demo with one of their team members to show you around.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>ConvertKit has done a great job of simplifying their software for bloggers who are wearing lots of different hats in their business.</p>
<p>Where Infusionsoft and Active Campaign arguably give you <i>too</i>much data to work with, here you get just enough to know what you’re doing and make informed decisions.</p>
<p>Convert Kit has been designed from the ground up with ease of use in mind and honestly no one makes it easier than ConvertKit.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/convertkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="ConvertKit">ConverKit</a> includes everything you need to get started with email marketing including forms, popups, landing pages and more.</p>
<h4>Landing Pages</h4>
<p>Landing pages are <i>essential </i>to helping bloggers capture email addresses. And usually you’d have to employ a third-party plugin to help you do that.</p>
<p>But ConvertKit, keeping bloggers in mind, has made them a part of the software and even created templates for you to use:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49128" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convertkit-landing-page-897x660.jpg" alt="convertkit landing page" width="897" height="660" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convertkit-landing-page-897x660.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/convertkit-landing-page-618x455.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>They won’t win any design awards anytime soon; but they are a great addition that can save you a lot of money investing in other tools when you’re just getting started.</p>
<h4>Resend To Unopens</h4>
<p>When you send an email you’ll usually get an open rate of around 20%. Maybe a little higher or a little lower depending on your relationship with your audience.</p>
<p>And, most of the time, we’re happy to write off that 80% that <i>didn’t </i>open off and just chalk it up as the way it is. But with this resend to unopens tool you can send the email out again &#8211; either with the same headline or a new one &#8211; to the people who didn’t open it.</p>
<p>This gives you ample opportunity to increase the amount of people who see your content, interact with your courses and read those important emails they might otherwise miss.</p>
<h4>Drawbacks</h4>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/convertkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="ConvertKit">ConvertKit</a> is one of the best starter models for bloggers on this list. But in their simplicity of use it feels as though you lose out on a lot of great features you could get for similar prices.</p>
<p>Their campaigns and automations aren’t quite up to scratch with that of Drip and you’re pretty restricted in terms of what you can do after the first step.</p>
<p>They also don’t offer any level of A/B testing which means that when you want to start narrowing down what <i>does </i>work for your audience, you’re going to have to migrate.</p>
<p><a name="aweber"></a></p>
<h2>Aweber: The Professional Marketer</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" target="_blank">Aweber</a> is one of the big players in email marketing. But, as far as branding goes, they’re pretty humble about it.</p>
<p>There are no big claims or false ideals. It’s all about you and your connection to the people receiving your emails. Which, makes you kind of love them straight from the off.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49163" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-home-897x469.png" alt="aweber home" width="897" height="469" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-home-897x469.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-home-618x323.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-home-301x158.png 301w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-home.png 1170w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>But good branding doesn’t always mean a good product. So, let’s get stuck in and find out what it’s really like…</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>Aweber’s pricing is competitive. And, sits at a flat rate for a big chunk of growth, unlike MailChimp.</p>
<p>If you’re a small to medium sized outfit, and plan to stay that way, these prices might be a little more manageable for you than any of the others.</p>
<p>Because, while you will save $4 a month (give or take) with GetResponse, there are some features you don’t get elsewhere (more on that in a bit).</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49146" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-8-897x566.jpg" alt="aweber pricing" width="897" height="566" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-8-897x566.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-8-618x390.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>For a bigger list, you’re going to need to get a quote. And I can’t say I’ve found sufficient reliable information on those prices to tell you whether they’re good or bad.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>Aweber isn’t hard to use; but it can take a little getting used to.</p>
<p>If you’ve been around email marketing for a while, you probably won’t even notice any of the hard parts. But if you’re brand new, you might feel a little out of your depth at first.</p>
<p>However the templates for emails, input and output are all really simple to use. And, after a little practice, become much easier to use.</p>
<p>When Matt used Aweber to run the entire email marketing portion of this site (he’s now with <a href="#drip">Drip</a>) he used it to create all of his:</p>
<ul>
<li>Opt-In Forms</li>
<li>Autoresponders</li>
<li>In Content Sign Up Buttons</li>
<li>Pop Ups</li>
</ul>
<p>And, he does it with ease. All of these can be set up in a couple of minutes and customised pretty easily, even if you’re like me and you’re not design inclined.</p>
<p>So, for ease of use, I’d say Aweber is the easiest to use once you are familiar with the interface.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>Aweber is definitely for the more data driven marketer. But, as a marketer, that’s what you need to get results. Because if you’re not data driven, you’re just guessing.</p>
<p>Now, don’t get me wrong, all of the platforms provide data on your campaigns. It’s just Aweber does it on a whole other level compared to, say, MailChimp. That being said, here’s the key features for you:</p>
<h4>#1: Campaigns</h4>
<p>After releasing campaigns in 2016, Aweber have used them to really change the game in Email Automation. The only real competitor to this feature right now is Drip.</p>
<p>Think of campaigns as an email autoresponder on steroids. When someone signs up you can guide them on the journey <i>you</i>want them to take. And you can segment your list for even further optimisation.</p>
<p>Just some of the features include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Send different autoresponders to segments of your list to boost conversions</li>
<li>Decide how long you want to wait between emails</li>
<li>Build email courses more simply than ever before</li>
</ul>
<p>And it’s quite an exciting feature. Because, it’s just saved you a lot of time on what would normally take you hours.</p>
<p>Recently I setup an autoresponder for my German Expat Blog that helps expats learn German. Once they download a specific eBook on my site, they’re treated to the following email series:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49145" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaigns-process-897x1123.jpg" alt="deutschified learn german" width="897" height="1123" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaigns-process-897x1123.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaigns-process-618x773.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaigns-process.jpg 1101w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>It still needs a lot of refining, but it allows me to keep my audience engaged whilst I’m not there posting content.</p>
<p>You can create a campaign based on how someone found your site. And tailor emails specifically to them, without actually having to go through and do it manually.</p>
<p>So when someone comes to your site and signs up through a Pay Per Click ad, they’ll get a different email to someone who comes from Facebook.</p>
<p>Equally if someone signs up from a post about SEO, then you can send them specific emails only about SEO to be more relevant.</p>
<p>This, in itself, is worth that $4 more than GetResponse.</p>
<p>The campaigns aren’t time-consuming to set up, either. </p>
<p>Once you’re logged in and signed up, you can started on them in a matter of minutes, and have them going in no time at all, <a href="https://help.aweber.com/hc/en-us/articles/212672837-How-Do-I-Get-Started-With-Campaigns" target="_blank">as they’ve shown in this tutorial right here</a>.</p>
<h4>#2: Mobile Apps</h4>
<p>You can check in on how your emails are performing on the go now, with their new mobile phone apps. Letting you view and track your results on the move.</p>
<p>Which, if you’re like me and live with your phone in your hand, is a sexy new feature that isn’t offered by anyone else.</p>
<p>Perfect if you’re on the go, or only have limited availability to your computer (like you know, those pesky families that get in the way).</p>
<h4>#3: Support</h4>
<p>It has to be said that Aweber’s support is second-to-none. In fact, it’s probably one of the best support systems I’ve come across on the internet, ever.</p>
<p>And it’s often a deciding factor for people choosing Aweber over another provider.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49164" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-support-897x454.png" alt="aweber support" width="897" height="454" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-support-897x454.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-support-618x312.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/aweber-support.png 1238w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h3>The Drawbacks…</h3>
<p>For new marketers I’m struggling to come up with any real drawbacks for <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" target="_blank">Aweber </a>at the moment. They’re at the forefront of email marketing, and their pricing is incredibly reasonable.</p>
<p>Now that campaigns are in full flow and have worked out all of the kinks, you’re getting a lot of value for money.</p>
<p>The only major problem I can see is that they’re $4 a month <i>more </i>than Get Response. But with the engagement and traffic you can get &#8211; and eventually customers &#8211; that will pay for itself in the long run.</p>
<p>You’re also a little more pushed to using the Aweber templates for forms and emails. But, unless you’re design inclined, that’s not really going to be an issue either.</p>
<p>They have a <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" target="_blank">fully featured 30 day free trial available</a> if you want to try them out.</p>
<p><a name="infusionsoft"></a></p>
<h2>Infusionsoft: The King Of Integration</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/infusionsoft/" target="_blank">InfusionSoft</a> is a little curveball here. It’s a name that mostly associated with corporate mailing lists, at least more so than any other email marketing software on this list.</p>
<p>But, they’re targeted at small businesses and boast a big ROI on using their mailing list. And, if you look at your blog, affiliate site or product, it’s really a small business.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/infusionsoft/" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49140" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-14-897x424.jpg" alt="infusionsoft home" width="897" height="424" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-14-897x424.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-14-618x292.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>So, if you’re making a solid living from it, it could be worth the upgrade.</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>Infusionsoft have recently done away with a free trial and now they offer you a free demo that <i>shows </i>you the software. This can be delivered to you in one of three ways:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49166" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/43010306-897x305.png" alt="infusionsoft demo" width="897" height="305" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/43010306-897x305.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/43010306-618x210.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Their prices are much higher than any of the competition on this list but they are so much more than just an email marketing platform and those prices are negotiable so bear that in mind!</p>
<p>If you’re a beginner, or not on huge bucks, you might want to look away now…</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49138" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-15-897x476.jpg" alt="infusionsoft pricing" width="897" height="476" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-15-897x476.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-15-618x328.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>But, as one of my mentors once told me, “It’s not the price of the product. It’s if you can justify it”. And, with the prices that you do pay, you get a lot of bang for your buck. </p>
<p>Let’s look a little deeper at that…</p>
<h3>Ease of Use</h3>
<p>Matt uses Infusionsoft for his product launch and <a target="_blank" href="https://agency.matthewwoodward.co.uk/">SEO agency</a>.</p>
<p>Not only is it relatively easy for him to use, it also came with a great many perks that other software just can’t compete with. </p>
<p>Things such as sending out physical postcards, letters, certificates, t shirts and chocolates.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49168" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/matt-old-campaign-897x887.jpg" alt="matt old campaign" width="897" height="887" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/matt-old-campaign-897x887.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/matt-old-campaign-110x110.jpg 110w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/matt-old-campaign-618x611.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/matt-old-campaign.jpg 964w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>It’s half personal assistant, half email marketing software. But there’s still a few hurdles between you and getting your emails out there.</p>
<p>Which is a little more than you’d expect from your standard marketing software, right? Let’s look a little deeper at what makes it special, then.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>Here’s the two most important features of Infusionsoft:</p>
<h4>Campaign Builder</h4>
<p>The campaign builder is probably the best on this list, hands down. It’s not only one of the simplest I’ve seen, but it’s also incredibly comprehensive:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49169" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaign-builder-897x676.jpg" alt="campaign builder" width="897" height="676" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaign-builder-897x676.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaign-builder-618x466.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/campaign-builder.jpg 1157w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You can basically automate, segregate and manipulate any aspect of your emails for best results. Or, you can just set yourself reminders and plan your day.</p>
<p>For example, if someone completes an exam in the course – they get a congratulations email:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49170" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-2-897x855.jpg" alt="example #2" width="897" height="855" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-2-897x855.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-2-618x589.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-2.jpg 975w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>That is done automatically thanks to the awesome integration with <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/learndash/" target="_blank">LearnDash</a>.</p>
<p>Equally if someone hasn’t logged in or completed a module for a while, it will automatically send an email to remind them-</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49171" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-3-897x856.jpg" alt="reminder email" width="897" height="856" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-3-897x856.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-3-618x590.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-3.jpg 985w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>And to really add to the overall customer experience you can set it up so that when someone buys a product, it automatically sends a custom thank you postcard like this one:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49172" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/camp-4.jpg" alt="business card" width="618" height="347" /></p>
<p>Matthew even uses it to dispatch physical certificates when customers complete the course and pass the final exam.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/infusionsoft/" target="_blank">InfusionSoft</a> is the combination of all the best bits of Aweber and GetResponse, with a lot more extras you didn’t know you needed.</p>
<h4>Integration</h4>
<p>Keeping with their commitment to small business, they’ve made themselves easy to integrate with almost any software you’ll be using.</p>
<p>That includes everything from eCommerce apps through to payment options and anything else your business might need.</p>
<p>Now, this is easy to overlook as just another feature.</p>
<p>But it actually makes a huge different when the stakes are high, because you’re not passing potential – or existing – customers through lots of different pages and payment options, risking them dropping off before they convert.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49173" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/integration-897x530.png" alt="integration" width="897" height="530" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/integration-897x530.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/integration-618x365.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/integration.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>You aren’t limited by a package or a certain selection of apps, either.</p>
<p>You’re able to swap, mix and match anything that works for your business, giving you a range of options that work for your customers, and give you a tonne of customisation and testing options.</p>
<p>That’s the pros, so let’s see the cons.</p>
<h3>Drawbacks</h3>
<p>The only drawback here is the cost. Because, if you are on a smaller scale, you’ve probably been priced out straight from the off.</p>
<p>Other than that, it’s hard to fault <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/infusionsoft/" target="_blank">InfusionSoft</a>. Much like Aweber you get what, if not more, than what you’re paying for.</p>
<p>And as Matt’s seen with his product launch, it’s battle tested and proven.</p>
<p><a name="activecampaign"></a></p>
<h2>Active Campaign</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/activecampaign/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Active Campaign">Active Campaign</a> is a well-established company in the email marketing world. </p>
<p>Since 2003 they’ve proven themselves to have a premier software that targets medium to larger email marketing needs.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/activecampaign/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Active Campaign"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49132" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-homepage-897x419.jpg" alt="active campaign homepage" width="897" height="419" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-homepage-897x419.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-homepage-618x288.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>But bigger doesn’t always equal better, so let’s put Active Campaign under the microscope and see how they perform.</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>Active Campaigns pricing starts at $9 for less than 500 subscribers on their Lite package. And then increase to $17 for 1000, $29 for 2500 and continues to increase from there on out.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49133" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaigns-pricing-897x597.jpg" alt="active campaigns pricing" width="897" height="597" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaigns-pricing-897x597.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaigns-pricing-618x411.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>This feels like a big ask for their lite package because it offers less than what Aweber and GetResponse, and they’re charging more for it.</p>
<p>If you’re working as a big team, or in the marketing department of a company, then you start to get a real return on investment from the Plus package onwards. </p>
<p>But you’ll be looking to invest $49 for under 500 subscribers for that.</p>
<p>So it really doesn’t feel like they’re offering much on the price front. But can that be outweighed by the ease of use?</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>The first impression of Active Campaign is a little overwhelming. The initial dashboard contains <i>all </i>of the data that you can collect and it’s hard to know where to start or what to look for:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49183" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12752987.jpeg" alt="ease of use 2" width="810" height="456" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12752987.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/12752987-618x348.jpeg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" /></p>
<p>And once you get beyond the dashboard and into the individual features, it’s much easier to use.</p>
<p>Each tool comes with access to a back-end knowledge base that does a really good job of explaining what each tool does, and how you can get the results that you want from it.</p>
<p>There are lots of customisable templates on offer, including for your sign up forms and emails, that really plug and play. </p>
<p>You don’t need to know much about design to make them look professional.</p>
<p>And many of the marketing automation tools are behind plain-English written buttons so you know exactly what process you’re about to set up.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49181" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/38803404.jpeg" alt="automation buttons" width="810" height="456" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/38803404.jpeg 810w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/38803404-618x348.jpeg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 810px) 100vw, 810px" /></p>
<p>It can be a little confusing accessing your data and knowing what you’re looking at though. </p>
<p>While they pride themselves on being able to collect a lot of data, being able to present it in an easily digestible way feels like it’s a long way off.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>So let&#8217;s take a look at some of the key features of <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/activecampaign/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Active Campaign">Active Campaign</a> and what makes them different.</p>
<h4>Drag And Drop Workflows</h4>
<p>Much like drip, you’ll find drag and drop workflows where you can create visual email automations:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49131" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-process-flow-897x510.jpg" alt="active campaign process flow" width="897" height="510" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-process-flow-897x510.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/active-campaign-process-flow-618x351.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>They don’t feel like they’ve just copied an idea from another tool, either. They’re comprehensive and really competitive as a standalone part of their own tool.</p>
<p>Although the Drip interface is much smoother, they work in a similar way. </p>
<p>However Active Campaign doesnt support the wide range of triggers that Drip does, eg when a person visits a specific web page.</p>
<h4>Dynamic Content</h4>
<p>Another standout feature is being able to create dynamic content. This is content that adapts and changes to the individual user that you’re sending it to.</p>
<p>This doesn’t just mean having names and personalisations in your content. Instead you can have your email content adjust itself depending on that user’s behaviour.</p>
<p>If they’re a hot lead, segmented into a specific category or have taken a certain action on your site, the email content they’ll see can be updated and changed.</p>
<p>Brilliant if you’ve got a wide range of topics and want to make sure the right people are getting the right messages.</p>
<p>However it should be noted that this is not a unique feature and can be done in Drip as well.</p>
<h4>Drawbacks</h4>
<p>It feels to me as though Active Campaign has <i>too</i> much. Every feature within the tool is well designed, well thought out and well planned, but I can’t help but feel there is too much going on to distract you from the main focus of the tool.</p>
<p>This is great if you’re a big company that needs to obsess about every minutia of data. </p>
<p>However if you’re a one person operation, or even a small team, it feels that you’re going to pay <i>more </i>for a lot of services that you’re never going to use.</p>
<p>You could save money going elsewhere, get similar (if not better) workflows, and be able to focus on the essential data.</p>
<p>In the past <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/activecampaign/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Active Campaign">Active Campaign</a> was a clear winner, but innovators like Drip have left them in the dust.</p>
<p><a name="getresponse"></a></p>
<h2>Get Response: The Best All Rounder?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" target="_blank">Get Response</a> is considered to be the easiest software to use for email marketing. After playing around with it for a couple of hours, I can see why, too:</p>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" target="_blank"><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49154" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/getresponse-1-1-897x428.png" alt="get response home" width="897" height="428" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/getresponse-1-1-897x428.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/getresponse-1-1-618x295.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/getresponse-1-1.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></a></p>
<p>It’s the essence of ‘no-fluff’ and just gives you everything essential that you need, and nothing extra. Which is probably what makes it the favourite of people like <a href="http://neilpatel.com/" target="_blank">Neil Patel</a>:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49155" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-2-1-897x142.png" alt="neil patel testimonial" width="897" height="142" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-2-1-897x142.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-2-1-618x98.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-2-1.png 982w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>However, sometimes the prettiest designs are hiding the darkest secrets. So let’s get in a little closer and find out what makes it so head and shoulders above the rest, eh?</p>
<h3>Pricing:</h3>
<p>Get Response offers the most competitive pricing options out of anyone for the features you get:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49150" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-4-897x556.jpg" alt="get response pricing" width="897" height="556" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-4-897x556.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-4-618x383.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Or, in dollars, <a href="http://stylefactoryproductions.com/blog/aweber-vs-getresponse#.VpeXA67hDJw=" target="_blank">that breaks down to:</a></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Up to 1,000 subscribers: $15 per month</strong></li>
<li><strong>1,001 to 2,500 subscribers: $25 per month</strong></li>
<li><strong>2,501 to 5,000 subscribers: $45 per month</strong></li>
<li>5,001 to 10,000 subscribers: $65 per month</li>
<li>10,001 to 25,000 subscribers: $145 per month</li>
<li>25,001 to 50,000 subscribers: $250 per month</li>
<li>50,001 to 100,000 subscribers: $450 per month</li>
</ul>
<p>Now I’m assuming most of you will be the region that I’ve bolded (forgive me if you’re higher than that) so I’ve focused mainly on that region for this information.</p>
<p>You can also have a <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" target="_blank">30 day free trial without credit card information</a> with them too, so you can really have a play around before you immerse yourself.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>Okay, I’m not going to lie…</p>
<p>This is really easy to use.</p>
<p>It’s kind of like one of those cell-phones with the really big buttons for old people to dial. Everything is where it needs to be, and there’s no awkward phrasing or confusing menus.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49153" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/18739815.png" alt="getresponse example" width="629" height="673" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/18739815.png 629w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/18739815-618x661.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 629px) 100vw, 629px" /></p>
<p>From logging in, to creating that email in the image above was less than 120 seconds. And, even as a rush job, it’s beautiful looking.</p>
<p>There are little icons that could be a bit better explained, or maybe a pop-up tutorial for your first email. But on the grand scale of things, that’s neither here nor there.</p>
<p>This seems to be a common theme with reviewers and commenters, too:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49157" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-testimonial.png" alt="get response testimonial" width="814" height="139" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-testimonial.png 814w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/get-response-testimonial-618x106.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 814px) 100vw, 814px" /></p>
<h3>Stand Out Features</h3>
<p>There are three features that really stand out for me with GetResponse:</p>
<h4>#1: Mobile Previews</h4>
<p>Get Response was one of the first platforms to have responsive emails that change to fit a phone screen when they’re opened there. </p>
<p>And it’s still the only platform of the that lets you preview how it’s going to look:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-49158" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mobile-preview.png" alt="get response mobile preview" width="296" height="611" /></p>
<p>In the depths of Mobilegeddon, and mobile accounting for <a href="http://www.emailmonday.com/mobile-email-usage-statistics" target="_blank">anywhere between 15 and 70% of your email opens</a>, this is a great feature. </p>
<p>Because you can see beforehand if there are going to be any roadblocks to people opening your mail.</p>
<h4>#2: Design &#38; Stock Images</h4>
<p>It comes with a full iStock gallery from Getty Images, giving you the opportunity to create attractive emails without having to worry about sourcing images:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49159" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/stock-image-897x438.png" alt="get response stock images" width="897" height="438" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/stock-image-897x438.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/stock-image-618x302.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/stock-image.png 925w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h4>#3: Split Testing</h4>
<p>GetResponse offers the most options for split testing. You can test up to five different versions of your email.</p>
<p>The more information you can get from your emails, the better. And while you may never use all five, you at least have the option.</p>
<h3>The Bad Stuff…</h3>
<p>This is a pretty solid platform for any email marketer, at any size of company. And there aren’t really many drawbacks to using it.</p>
<p>The only downside, really, is that while it is integrate-able with lots of third party software – like WordPress and PayPal – it doesn’t work quite as well as some of the other platforms available.</p>
<p>They have their own App Centre which is great and simple to use. And, the integration is still good, but it’s just not as good as other available platforms.</p>
<p>There’s also the issue that they may not cater to your preferred service, either. So that’s one to bear in mind.</p>
<p>Okay, that’s it for <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/getresponse/" target="_blank">GetResponse</a> for now, let’s look at MailChimp…</p>
<p><a name="mailchimp"></a></p>
<h2>MailChimp: Basic But Beautiful</h2>
<p>This is usually your first experience with email software. I know for most of the bloggers and clients I’ve worked with, they tend to start with <a href="http://mailchimp.com/" target="_blank">MailChimp</a>.</p>
<p>They’re simple and easy to use. And they have a free version that even your partially sighted 90-year-old aunt could get her head around.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49149" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-6-897x411.jpg" alt="mailchimp home" width="897" height="411" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-6-897x411.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-6-618x283.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>But I know few people who actually stay with MailChimp in the long run.</p>
<p>I’m sure they’re out there, but I don’t know any of them. And I’ve always wanted to know why, so I guess we’ll find out together right now…</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>For small time projects and lists, MailChimp offers a free forever package that allows you up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails a month for nothing.</p>
<p>But if you’re looking for a bigger, paid option, they have that too.</p>
<p>What MailChimp offers in the pricing department – either positively, or negatively, depending on where you stand – is pricing bands.</p>
<p>Instead of working on a large range of 1,000’s or 10,000’s of people, it works in smaller increments of 500 to increase the price:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49148" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-7-897x456.jpg" alt="mailchimp price" width="897" height="456" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-7-897x456.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-7-618x314.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>That can be a positive, because it means if you suddenly exceed a threshold of people, you don’t see a huge spike in price. </p>
<p>It’s small and only costs $5 every time you grow until you reach the pro-marketer level.</p>
<p>But, that can also be a negative, because you’re being charged for growing your email list. And if you see a sudden influx in people your bill is going to jump up too.</p>
<p>That’s one to discuss with your accounts department.</p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>MailChimp is really straightforward to use.</p>
<p>Like Get Response, it’s about making everything as easy as possible to use and find your way around. There are a few more hurdles to get from start to finish, but the end product is still as beautiful:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49160" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/james-writes-things-897x474.png" alt="mailchimp ease of us" width="897" height="474" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/james-writes-things-897x474.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/james-writes-things-618x326.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/james-writes-things-301x158.png 301w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/james-writes-things.png 1168w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>It can be a little confusing at times, especially if you’re new to email marketing. But, after an hour of playing around, you’ll no doubt be savvy enough to make it run seamlessly.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>The stand out features for MailChimp are:</p>
<h4>#1: Templates And Flexibility</h4>
<p>MailChimp has a great level of flexibility for your designs and templates. Instead of being steered towards one of their templates – which there are hundreds of, and you can use as often as you want – there is also the option to create your own, too.</p>
<p>For example, their design editor is beautiful and easy to use, if you’re into creating your own branding from scratch for each email:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49161" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2016-01-15-at-12.35.45-1024x441-897x386.png" alt="flexibility mailchimp" width="897" height="386" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2016-01-15-at-12.35.45-1024x441-897x386.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2016-01-15-at-12.35.45-1024x441-618x266.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Screen-Shot-2016-01-15-at-12.35.45-1024x441.png 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h4>#2: Member Rating System</h4>
<p>List segmentation is rapidly becoming more important for marketers. That is, separating your lists based on different information such as interests or demographics.</p>
<p>This Member Rating system is really helpful in helping you identify leads, people of interest and the best ways to convert. </p>
<p>While it may not provide a breakdown of the exact emails you should send, it’ll let you focus your efforts for different subsections of people.</p>
<h4>#3: Social Media Adverts</h4>
<p>MailChimp also now offers integration with your Facebook and Instagram accounts to help you run ads and monitor your success through a third party dashboards.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49147" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-7-897x471.jpg" alt="mailchimp social media adverts" width="897" height="471" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-7-897x471.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-7-618x324.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-software-7-301x158.jpg 301w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>This is a really cool addition that I didn’t see coming from an email marketing software company. </p>
<p>And if you’re a new marketer it can help you simplified what would otherwise be a complex and tricky process.</p>
<h3>The Drawbacks…</h3>
<p>Okay, there are a few drawbacks to MailChimp that you need to be aware of:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Support: </b>You can wait up to 24 hours for a response. And, while that might not sound much on paper, when things are going wrong can be an eternity. This has been known to extend up to 48 hours too.</li>
<li><b>Forms: </b>You can only have one sign up form per mailing list, so you can’t test what works and what doesn’t easily.</li>
<li><b>Affiliate Marketing</b>: Mailchimp frowns on affiliate marketing in their terms of service. So, if that’s any part of your income, I’d steer clear.</li>
</ul>
<p>If you can deal with all of those – and there will be some of you who won’t even notice it – MailChimp isn’t a bad choice.</p>
<p><a name="constantcontact"></a></p>
<h2>Constant Contact: Old But Gold?</h2>
<p>These guys are one of those companies that you’ve probably never heard of, but have been around forever.</p>
<p>They’ve been around the game for over 16 years and they’re more focused on sending better email and providing constantly updated resources than ever before.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49144" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-9-897x510.jpg" alt="constant contact home" width="897" height="510" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-9-897x510.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-9-618x352.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>They have a bit more of a small time, homely feel about them. One that would fit well with small local businesses, parenting blogs and the like. </p>
<p>But, let’s see if they actually have the software to back it up…</p>
<h3>Pricing</h3>
<p>Constant Contact comes with the longest free trial out of everybody (aside from MailChimp’s free forever package) that goes on for 60 days.</p>
<p>They also only offer two plans: Email and Email Plus. Each coming with its own list of benefits.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49143" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-10-897x727.jpg" alt="constant contact pricing" width="897" height="727" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-10-897x727.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-10-618x501.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>Although you can’t see it on that image, Email plus comes with five extra benefits:</p>
<ol>
<li>Email Automation</li>
<li>Event Marketing</li>
<li>Online Donations</li>
<li>Surveys &#38; Polls</li>
<li>Coupons</li>
</ol>
<p>For which they charge you an extra $25 to $30 a month depending on the size of your email list. Which I’m honestly not sure if worth the extra money when automation comes as standard, for much cheaper, on Aweber.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49142" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-11-897x658.jpg" alt="pricing two" width="897" height="658" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-11-897x658.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-11-618x453.jpg 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-11.jpg 1566w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<h3>Ease Of Use</h3>
<p>The site itself is really pretty to look at. And, finding what you want to do within the software couldn’t actually be easier.</p>
<p>It’s simple to find your way around, and quick to get from login to completed campaign.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49141" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-12-897x361.jpg" alt="constant contact campaign" width="897" height="361" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-12-897x361.jpg 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/email-marketing-12-618x249.jpg 618w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>The templates feature itself, though, is pretty hard to navigate. Which is a theme that carries on into the site, too. While you can find where you want to go, once you get there, everything takes a little longer than it needs to.</p>
<p>For example, it comes with a stock image database, but it’s just laid out in such a way that it takes much longer to deal with than the one in Get Response. But, it actually has one, which gives it an edge on some of the others here.</p>
<p>However actually creating an email is easy enough to do. And, whether you’re into design or using the stock templates, you’re pretty well catered to.</p>
<h3>Key Features</h3>
<p>There’s a couple of good features to Constant Contact, too:</p>
<h4>#1: Quickest Delivery</h4>
<p>This is based on reviews from other people, <a href="https://www.codefetti.com/aweber-vs-constant-contact-vs-mailchimp-review/" target="_blank">like this one</a>, but it seems that they have the quickest delivery – both in tests and actual – out of every email campaign.</p>
<p>So, if you’re particular on time and delivery (which you should be with emails) this is a really big benefit for you.</p>
<h4>#2: Simple Share Tool</h4>
<p>Their simple share tool lets you get forms across any social media platform at the push of a button:</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-49165" src="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cc-simple-share-897x195.png" alt="" width="897" height="195" srcset="https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cc-simple-share-897x195.png 897w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cc-simple-share-618x135.png 618w, https://cdn.matthewwoodward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/cc-simple-share.png 960w" sizes="(max-width: 897px) 100vw, 897px" /></p>
<p>These can be personalised to each platform, and makes it easy to boost promotion of your list across social too.</p>
<h3>The Drawbacks…</h3>
<p>Constant Contact fans seem to be tubthumping, shout it at the top of their lungs fans…but they’re also few and far between.</p>
<p>It doesn’t feel like they really offer anything – other than a 60 day trial – that you can’t get on a different platform at a better price, or more in-depth. And after coming back to update this article a year later, nothing much has really changed either.</p>
<p>I’d suggest using the trial yourself (no credit card needed) to play around with it. But, if I’m honest, the real drawback here is that you’re not getting anything special, or that can’t be done better elsewhere.</p>
<h2>And, The Winner Is…</h2>
<p>It’s not winning or losing, it’s the taking part that counts, right?</p>
<p>Wrong.</p>
<p>But there’s no real winner or loser here because it’s impossible to say which is the best email marketing software, there are just different benefits to each email marketing software platform.</p>
<p>So, instead of giving you a one-size-fits-all verdict, here’s a breakdown for you:</p>
<h3>The Best Email Marketing Software For Beginners</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/aweber/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Aweber">Aweber</a> is the email marketing software that I used to build this blog so you know it performs.</p>
<p>It offers the right blend of ease of use, features and pricing for anyone that is just getting started.</p>
<p>They have a 30 day $1 trial available so feel free to take it for a spin!</p>
<p><strong>However</strong>&#8230; <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/convertkit/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="ConvertKit">ConvertKit</a> comes in a close second place and honestly choosing between them is just a matter of your personal preferences/needs.</p>
<h3>The Best Email Marketing Software For Affiliate Marketers</h3>
<p><a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip">Drip</a>, all day. The marketing automation, level of customisation and the ability to control your customer’s journey is essential to affiliate success going forward.</p>
<p>Not only that but the level of data here is much better, for the right amount of money, than you’ll find anywhere else.</p>
<h3>The Best Email Marketing Software For Bloggers</h3>
<p>I’m going to have to go with <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/drip/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" title="Drip">Drip</a> again here. It’s worth paying the extra money over Aweber for the tools and level of automation you get.</p>
<p>Drip will make life easier as a blogger because you can capture emails from literally <i>anywhere</i> on your blog, and use the workflows to help you plug any leaky holes you might have.</p>
<p>Plus I recently migrated this from Aweber to Drip so the proof is in the pudding.</p>
<h3>The Best Business Platform</h3>
<p>The best platform for business use by far is <a href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/get/infusionsoft/" target="_blank">Infusionsoft</a>.</p>
<p>It’s a no brainer. If you’ve got a decent budget, this is the email marketing software you want to be spending your money on.</p>
<p><strong>Which email marketing software do you use? And why?</strong></p>
<p><a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/">How To Choose The Best Email Marketing Software For You</a> was originally published on <a rel="nofollow" href="https://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk">Matthew Woodward</a></p>
<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/UicUwsr2yf8" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LwJxRCsZnSg" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/sgrt_d0OCqc" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/28BvtG9SWa4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/pbfikhlCt2w" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/xgHUI7zLtCA" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/86kDX3fnouI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/L2__8uEaIiE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/CPCrit54Mk4" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/6AwVjy55I80" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/1RcawZGeiTY" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/ixT0FYpeNKE" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/oY_qXCCdHME" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/nGs4szP149I" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/Jruo-wwmHhs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/CmP1NhlNHYs" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/JIWhm8tQ5YU" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/rjBkaWAwYMI" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/LZgXbtKjle0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/se7o8NdAIsk" height="1" width="1" alt=""/><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MatthewWoodward/~4/TNyp8acmo84" height="1" width="1" alt=""/>TutorialsEmailMon, 07 Aug 2017 14:49:38 GMThttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tutorials/email-marketing-software-compared/#commentshttps://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/?p=40890James Johnson2017-08-07T14:49:38Z